Shattered
by Set
Summary: Fragile things are always meant to break in Port Charles, be they lives or relationships. Can people hope to pick up the pieces? Will there even be pieces left to pick up? Story three in a long running saga. 12007: Finished Via Summary.
1. Doctor In Training

Authors Note: As I promised those of you who stuck it out for both Shadows of the Past and Woe, I would continue the ongoing saga of the citizens of Port Charles after a break to gain my bearings and rest. The story that I wanted to tell has yet to be told, and, until that story has been told, rest assured that my days and nights spent writing stories such as these will not end. That said, thank you all for returning to my work, it does me great joy to know that people read it, and now, with the function I have available to me, I can check how many hits a story has, and contrast it with the reviews. That is not a threat, although, truth be told, the review ration between Shadows and Woe was rather large… but, I'm here to write, and hopefully entertain, to demand reviews from you, my readers, would pervert the art of writing, something that I simply will not do. If you want to review, and, god willing, you do, then please do so, if you do not, then more power to you.

For those of you who are reading this and going 'what the hell is this guy (and yes, I am a guy) talking about?' I give you the simple explanation. Since December 2003, I have been writing General Hospital related fanfiction. I did not expect it to get nearly as large as it has gotten, but it did, and I'm not upset about it. The first two stories, three, in a way, are still on the site, just click on my user name and you will see all my other works. The General Hospital ones are the ones listed at the top. I will NOT, I repeat NOT be held responsible for the scarring that may come to you if you choose to continue to go down that list. I keep those stories for the hell of it, not because I love them or anything. That said, you should probably avoid them… they likely hold little interest to you. Is it critical that you read those two stories? In a way, yes, because one of the central characters, of my own creation, is introduced during the first part, and fleshed out throughout both. But is it necessary? No. If you have questions, you can always ask about them in a review and I will answer them when I do the next update. Generally, barring some unforeseen circumstances outside of my control, I give one five page chapter a day, sometimes it can change, sometimes the chapters are about five full pages on word and a section of the sixth, but you can expect almost a daily dose of my story, if you want it. As a seldom reader of fanfiction on this site, I absolutely abhor the long waits that could come when people keep on stalling and stalling for the next section, and try and keep my readers from feeling the same pain, so, I make sure to have a lead before I start posting. As of right now, I'm on page 105 of the story, while you are merely getting up to page five. So, that should give you an idea as to how able I am to update according to my schedule.

Now, for some of the technical whatnot: I've tweaked a lot of the storyline for my purposes. Since this was originally written in 2003, any coupling is from that time, which means, CarSon, Journey, LiRic, GQ, and anything else that may or may not pop up. For those that want to know, Carly is portrayed as the beloved Tamara Braun, and Maxie is still Robyn Richards. Also, as it has only recently been revealed that Dillon and Georgie are not the same age, which I was almost certain they were, within the context of this story, they are both seniors in high school, the same age, so is Brook. Which leads me to my next point: despite being written in 2003, if I see characters that I wish to incorporate, and can incorporate in this story, I will. So far Lois, Brook and Durant have all made appearances despite not being introduced until after I started the original story, and more may well come. Also, I cannot, seriously, cannot work with every character who has been on the canvas, and I won't try to. This is a very focused story, it is not all encompassing, a lot of characters don't even get a mention, and that is because I simply do not have the time to work with everyone. I won't say that they will never show up, because it is possible, but the likelihood of Jax, Emily, Alexis, Nikolas, Helena and so on making appearances here in the story are pretty slim. Forgive me, for I am nothing but human and I have only so much ability inside of me. Not even that much, yet I keep on trucking.

Finally, I really do love the feedback that I can get from you, the readers. If you want to suggest things for me to do, you can. I will not guarantee them, but I will comment on them, and, if they fit the overall tone of the story, I will probably put them in. Please do not suggest that Sonny find out about Kristina, though. While I thought it was an excellent story on the show, and would indeed make for a good read here, I don't feel like throwing another child into the mix. Just a personal reference.

Also, I do not own these characters, save a few, who you should know because you've either been reading and know that they are mine, or you're asking that 'who the hell is this?' question. Yeah, I own them. Mine, all mine. But I still don't make profit from this, this is all for fun, and for the enjoyment of myself and of the rest of you. Without further ado, let us begin this storyline!

Story-

General Hospital-

He looked at the paperwork that was in front of his face on the clipboard intently. No matter how big or how small the problem was it ended up being his job to help the person and his or her family and friends, cope with what was gone. That was one of the most important parts of being a doctor, a part that he feared most people overlooked. It wasn't about telling them what was happening, it was about making them feel like they could beat what was wrong with them, or, in the case that there was something that they couldn't beat, find a way to cope with it. Luckily for the young intern there had yet to be a case where he was forced to deal with the latter option. Everyone that he had seen he had found a way to cure, sometimes it was as simple as giving out a prescription for a pill, other times it required sending them to one of the more experienced doctors, such as Monica Quartermaine, for more intensive care than he could provide at the point he was at in his career.

"So, what's wrong with me?" The middle-aged man asked as he put his shirt on. One of the less pleasant aspects of being a doctor was being forced to look at people without clothes on. Sometimes they needed it. Yes, it was a petty little complaint, but, despite claims to the contrary, Port Charles, New York was not solely populated by the pretty people.

"I'm afraid, Mr. Anderson, that you have streptococcus."

"Excuse me?"

Damian smiled. A perk of the job was using the big words that people wouldn't understand. He'd never do it when it was something that couldn't be a little humorous. "Strep throat, Mr. Anderson. You have strep throat."

"Oh…"

Monica Quartermaine, the aforementioned exalted doctor, was walking passed the exam room where Damian and his patient were. She had been watching him, like she watched all the interns, but Damian Zuniga-Corinthos was something special. The son of the wealthy and very powerful mobster, Sonny Corinthos, Damian had more going against him than he could ever have going for him. It was hard for Monica at times as well, to look at him, to hear his name in her head and to not think about what could have been. The elderly woman had lost much to Sonny and his sphere of influence. She had lost a son and a grandson, who had now happily embraced Damian as his big brother. Monica had seen Damian with Michael, and she knew that he loved the boy as if he truly were a little brother.

But there were times when Monica could see Damian for who he was, not a reflection of Sonny, or of Michael, or of anyone else, just as the young man driven to the calling by a horrible tragedy that had befallen him at a young age. Plenty of people wanted to become doctors after they felt a loss like Damian had, but very few of them actually managed to do it. Damian was one of them.

"It's a very common malady, Mr. Anderson," Damian put the clipboard down and looked at the man in the eyes. Some doctors would talk while looking at the charts, that made them seem impersonal. Damian remembered what that was like. The doctors that tried to help his mother's last days a little less uncomfortable were like that. They rarely looked the family in the eyes. It could have been because they didn't want to see the pain that had befallen the Zuniga clan, losing Ana-Maria Zuniga was like losing a part of their soul. Damian, despite being her only child, could never be the type of person that his mother was. She united people left and right, Damian loved his family dearly, always would, but he wasn't the type who was big on the hugs and reunions. "You don't need to worry about anything bad happening to you. You don't need to be afraid. It's contagious right now, so you should probably avoid contact with as many people as possible, but in a few days it will clear up."

The word contagious didn't make the man feel very good about it. "What about work?"

"Unless you want to get your coworkers sick, it would be advised that you don't go into work for a few days. Getting people sick, especially with something like this, isn't exactly the best way to get friends, or keep the ones that you have. You have sick days available do you, do you not?"

"Well… yeah…"

"Then spend the next few days catching up on 'The Price Is Right' and sitting around the house in your pajamas all day. In some ways, this is a blessing in disguise. You're going to be fine, Mr. Anderson, but if you feel like something is wrong, like you're not getting any better, you can come in again."

"Can I… ask you something?"

"I'm your doctor," Damian said confidently, as if he needed to hear it just as much as his patient. "You can ask me anything."

"How… old are you?"

The young man snickered under his breath. It was a common question. Although he had only been interning for two weeks, the question came up more times than he would care to state. And each time he would do the same thing, laugh. "I'm twenty-one, Mr. Anderson." It was odd for someone of his age to be an intern, he was well aware of that, but he was also well aware of the fact that he was capable of doing what people expected of him. Besides, he was only a year and a half younger than most of the other interns that were running around the hospital with him. It wasn't like he was still some acne-ridden teenager who was telling people how to take care of themselves. But, he knew what he was getting into when he took the offer, he knew that people would second guess him. He'd even had a few patients who refused to listen to his advice without the opinion of another, more 'capable' doctor. He took offense to that, how could he not, but he was sympathetic towards them. If the situation was reversed he would do the same thing. Then again, doctors made the worst patients.

"Maybe I should…"

Monica walked in at that moment. She had seen more than enough people belittle Damian's advice. He may have been taking it well, but she wasn't. It was on her suggestion that they took in someone who was considerably younger than most of the interns that they would take in. If Damian went down, Monica and Alan, as well as Bobbie, would go down with her. She would hate to have such a failure happen because of something so petty as age. "I can assure you that anything that Doctor Zuniga-Corinthos suggested is made with the utmost consideration."

"Why thank you, Doctor Quartermaine." Damian was prepared to page another doctor, usually it ended up being Monica, but he didn't need to do that. "Are there any more questions, Mr. Anderson?"

Mr. Anderson knew well and good the reputation of the Quartermaine family. They were the people who essentially owned the hospital. Alan and Monica Quartermaine were two of the most respected doctors on the east coast. If one of them, obviously Monica, said that the kid was giving him the right diagnostic, then the kid was giving him the right diagnostic. "Not at all. I'll follow your orders to the letter, Doctor."

"Glad to hear it," Damian ripped away a pad of paper, signing it. "Take this to a pharmacy, either here at the hospital or somewhere else, it's your prescription. Instructions will be on the bottle when you receive it. Have a nice day."

Monica watched the man leave. She was still marginally upset at the way that he had treated his doctor. The woman looked over and saw that it was actually distressing Damian, who normally took it in spades. "You know… if I had to go through the same thing that you did when I was an intern, I think I would have quit."

"The thought has crossed my mind. Sometimes I wonder if I should just wait till I'm a little older. Or grow some facial hair to keep this youthful look at bay."

"Damian," Monica shook her head, putting a hand on his shoulder, "I'm saying this completely objectively, not because of the fact that I've taken a special interest in you… but you're good at this. You're really good at this. Better than you should be at your age."

"Thank you, Monica."

"And you're better with the patients than most of the full time doctors here. You're sympathetic, you make them feel like they're important to you."

"They are important to me," he said with a shy smile. "How could they not be? They're depending on me to help make them better. They're trusting me with their fate. I can't take that lightly."

"You sound a lot like Emily when you say something like that. Or… how Jason used to sound."

"Monica…" the young man knew that it was a sore spot for her, to talk about the son that she lost. She would look at Jason Morgan and she couldn't help but see Jason Quartermaine in his stead, but then came the realization that she would never be able to get that person back. Her son was lost to her, and he was into something that could end his life because of Damian's father.

"I'm sorry," she wiped away the beginnings of tears from her eyes before they could roll down her face. "How much longer do you have before your shift is over?"

"Six hours." Another less than pleasant aspect of his job was the long hours. As an intern he was expected to stay in the hospital for days at a time. The beds in the hospital weren't nearly as comfortable as his bed at the penthouse. "I was actually going to take my lunch break… is that all right?"

"You're entitled to it by law. Besides, we're not slave drivers here…"

"You obviously don't spend that much time in the locker room listening to some of the other people complain, do you?" He and Monica shared a laugh as they left the examination room, closing the door behind them.

Port Charles Docks-

Sonny Corinthos looked at the ocean from the edge of the docks. As a young boy he would often look at the ocean and dream the dreams of a child, dreams of being rich and powerful, being able to give his family everything that they wanted, everything that he never had. Now, as an adult, Sonny had done that. But he had paid a horrible price for it. His soul had been tainted. There was no doubt about it. He could delude himself into thinking that he was just a person who did things for a reason, for a good reason, but the fact was that he still did things that God wouldn't approve of for any reason, and yet he still depended on the lord to help him through the hardest times of his life, and somehow, the lord still gave him the will to survive.

It didn't matter how hard Sonny tried, there was never a way for him to get out of the business for good. He had attempted it, with marginal degrees of success. He really thought that the last time, after that bullet went through his wife's head and almost killed her, he would have snapped out of it, and he was doing well, but the cold slap of reality once more took hold of Sonny and his life. Damian came into his life, and Damian was put in danger because Sonny was trying to pass himself off as legit, and in the end it put the boy in danger. It almost cost him the son that he loved dearly. At that time they barely had a relationship… and he would have lost any and all chances of having a relationship with him. Like it or not, no matter what, Sonny needed the lifestyle that he led. He couldn't do without it.

"Sonny?" Jason Morgan walked down the stairs. Sonny apparently didn't hear him, which wasn't that surprising, since, when Sonny was brooding, as he frequently did, he found a way to tune out the world around him. It was something that Jason wished that he could do. He was good at having a blank stare, even when he was nervous, but he was horrid at channeling out people. Jason listened to everything. He called out to his partner, one of his best friends a second time, "Sonny?"

"Did you ever think that it would all come down like this?"

"What do you mean?"

"Did you think that your life would turn out the way that it did? Working with me, doing what we do? Having the life that we have?" Sonny looked over his shoulder at Jason's unique eyes. It was easy to see why Courtney fell in love with Jason. But he was quick to realize what his question meant, especially to someone like Jason. "Sorry, I guess I shouldn't be asking you that question."

"Are you all right?" Jason knew that when Sonny started to be introspective it was the time when there was something going on.

"Just thinking."

"That's what's scaring me."

"Don't worry, Jase," Sonny said firmly. "I'm fine. I was just looking and thinking about my life. Even with everything that's happened, all the things that I wish never happened, there is so much more that I'm very thankful did happen. I'm glad that I met you, for example, I'm glad that I have the family that I do. I just wish that I didn't have to worry about you and everyone else so much."

"I can take care of myself…"

"I don't doubt that, but what about everyone else? What about Carly and Courtney? What about my children? What about Dillon?"

"We protect them."

"And what if we can't protect them enough? What happens when we fail in protecting them? Like when I failed Lily? Or when I failed Carly and we lost our first baby? Life's good right now, Jason… but whenever life gets good, especially my life, something happens to screw it up. I guess I'm just waiting for it."


	2. You Don't Belong

Quartermaine Mansion, Interior-

Tracy Quartermaine walked into the living room from the foyer of her beautiful home. It was a place that she had been denied access to for years, but now she had returned. She knew that her plan would work: leaving Dillon alone in Port Charles while she continued to travel around Europe was the perfect way to plant seeds for her return. There was not a single part of Tracy's being that felt badly for using her youngest child in such a manner. She loved Dillon dearly, more than she loved her own life, but she was not the type of person to take a situation and not use it to her advantage. Tracy was a businesswoman, ruthless and cunning. She showed that quite frequently.

The acid-tongued socialite walked passed his picture on the mantle. He was smiling. His senior picture. One of the last pictures that he had gotten from her, one of the last moments that she had with her son before he was taken away from her by Sonny Corinthos and Jason Morgan, her nephew. Tracy picked up the picture and ran her fingers over it. She may have been critical of Dillon, very critical in fact, but it was only because she loved him and saw that he had more potential than any other member of the family, even Jason when he was the golden boy. Dillon could shape the world in his hands, it was a part of his birthright, but instead he chose to throw away any chances that he had at greatness for a film career, a little tart and a life where he could end up being riddled with bullets just by stepping outside the door. That was not the life that Tracy wanted for her son, and she felt that she had failed him. There was one thing that Tracy hated, and it was failure.

She moved her hand forward, placing the picture back where it had been before looking over at another picture. A picture of her mother, Lila Quartermaine. Tracy loved her mother dearly, almost as much as she loved her son, and while they had differences, quite frequently, Tracy always felt that she could depend on her mother when the times got too hard for even Tracy to handle alone. This was one of those times. It was so hard to wake up every morning and not see Dillon sleeping in his room. He never knew it, but she would do that every morning, before he got up, just watch her baby, who was becoming a young man. Tracy would give nearly anything to have that back.

"Mother… I wish I had your drive, I wish I had your patience. I wish that I could put up with everything that Dillon does the way that you could put up with everything that I did. I'm your daughter, but that doesn't mean that I'm like you. Everyone knows it, and now that you're gone they don't even try to hide it. People look at me and ask how I could be the daughter of Lila Quartermaine. Sometimes I wonder with them, but I was blessed to have you as my mother, just like I'm blessed to have Dillon as my son."

Brook Lynn Ashton heard voices coming from the living room. She had only been living in the mansion for a few weeks, and she was still fairly certain that there were areas of the estate that she hadn't yet managed to see, but, in time, she would. The voice that she heard was instantly recognizable. Tracy was her grandmother, but that hardly meant that the woman was the type of person who would spend time knitting or baking. Tracy Quartermaine probably didn't even know how to do either. Brook and Tracy didn't get along at all, mostly because Tracy chose to be a horrible person towards her mother, Lois. Tracy was a horrible person to everyone, really, but she couldn't put anything aside, at all. It was no wonder that Dillon left the house. Her uncle, and Jason, were probably the smartest members of the Quartermaine family, just because they were able to get out before it was too late.

The teenager walked into the room, standing by the door, listening to Tracy's speech. It was then that she realized something about her grandmother that she had never seen before: her heart. Tracy hid so much behind her tongue, her wit, her evil attitude that it was easy to assume that she didn't have a heart to begin with, but, as Brook was seeing at that moment, it simply wasn't true. Tracy did have a heart, and it hurt.

Tracy turned around, not knowing that Brook was there but ready to walk out of the room before the memories became too much for her. It was at that moment that she saw her granddaughter. She quickly wiped away the beginnings of tears that were forming in her eyes as she recollected everything that she had lost, and, like clockwork, went back into the Tracy mode that she was known for, "Shouldn't you be at school?"

"I had my free period at the end of the day, so I came home early." Brook, much like Dillon and Georgie, was enrolled as a senior at Port Charles high. It was the first time that she had ever been to an actual school. It was different, in a good way. She was well aware of the fact that there were people who had taken an interest in her, but Brook didn't want any of them. No, the object of her desire was a young Mexican intern and son of her mother's best friend. Damian was everything that she wanted. He was supportive and firm, calm and understanding. Everything that his father, and her family, weren't.

"Look at this, young lady," Tracy grumbled as she walked over to the table. "I know that this isn't Dillon's English textbook! This isn't a pigsty, Brook Lynn! We're Quartermaine's, people expect our house to be in the best possible condition!"

"Chill, granny, it's just a damned book!" Brook sighed as she walked over to the table and picked it up. She was looking for the book anyway. "People aren't going to assume that the family is falling apart because there was one English book on the table, they're going to assume that the family is falling apart because of the way you people act!"

"Brookie!" Lois overheard the commotion. She was proud of her daughter for having the gull to stand up to Tracy, something that very few people had, but at the same time, Lois raised Brook to respect her elders, especially her grandmother. Maybe that was just because Lois had such a wonderful relationship with her own grandmother, and Lila, too, who was her grandmother in law for a time. Lois also had regrets for the actions that she took. Keeping her daughter away from the woman that Lois respected the most out of anyone in the world until it was too late.

"Are you still here?" Tracy snapped at Lois. "This is the family house. Your daughter may be family, Lois, but you aren't."

"Hey, back off!" Brook got into Tracy's face. "That's my ma you're talking to, and she deserves more respect than that."

"Darling, you really should brush your teeth more often, or maybe put on less lipstick… then again, you should change your entire wardrobe, you look like you belong in some Macabre painting."

"If you weren't my grandmother I'd punch that smug smirk off your face in two seconds… and to think, I was willing to give you some credit, think that you may have been a little human for once."

"Big mistake, Brookie," Lois commented. "When God made Tracy he made sure to replace sugar for poison and everything nice for hate. He kept the spice, though… maybe a little too much spice."

"What are you babbling about?" Tracy inquired, "Did you sniff too much of that nail polish that it destroyed what pitifully slim amount of brain cells that you may have had left?"

"What's going on here?" Edward Quartermaine, the family patriarch, asked. "Oh, it's just you, Tracy."

"Thank you for giving me the benefit of the doubt, daddy," Tracy snapped back at her father. Although they were constantly at each other's throats there was no doubt in either of their hearts that they still loved each other. Tracy was Edward's last link to Lila, the daughter that they shared, and Edward was Tracy's sole parent.

"Your daughter wants to throw my mother out of the house," Brook Lynn informed her great-grandfather. Edward was just like Tracy, except male. She didn't care for either of them. "But what she doesn't realize is that she doesn't get to say who lives in this house. Monica does. It's her house."

"Alan gave it to her," Lois nodded.

"Do we have to go through this every single time someone needs to be thrown out of the house?" Tracy asked, throwing her hands up in defeat. "I really could kill my brother for giving his wife the house, now she has ammo to use against me whenever she wants."

"Like you don't provide enough of that without the house issue," Lois said nonchalantly. "Face it, Tracy, as long as Monica wants me here, I stay here. Besides, Lila would never throw me out."

"Don't you dare begin to assume that you would know what my mother would say in this situation you cheap little…"

"Enough!" Edward may have been the oldest of the group in the room, but he was also the one with the most control over his family. His voice carried. "Lila would never, ever, think about throwing Lois out, or any other member of this family out. She was much too kind for that, and she always loved Lois. Now, Tracy, are you going to assume that you know your mother better than I do?" He saw Tracy turn her back, "I thought so. Enough of this discussion!"

"Face it, granny," Brook said sarcastically, "you just got owned."

"I said that was enough, young lady!" Edward glared at his great-granddaughter. Lila would be able to control them. But Edward just didn't have the strength.

Kelly's-

Elizabeth Webber-Lansing was still going through the lovely time of being a newlywed, even if she was married to her husband for a second time. It felt like the first because this was the time when Ric could be the type of person that she wanted him to be. He could really be a husband, he wasn't consumed by all the hatred that had fueled him in the past. Ric was stronger now, more capable of giving her what she wanted… even if the only thing she wanted was a happy marriage.

If there was one thing that Ric wanted Elizabeth to do for him, it was give up her job as a waitress at Kelly's, but that was one thing that Elizabeth couldn't give up. At first it was merely a job to keep her afloat, now, it was something that she enjoyed doing. She highly doubted that she would spend her entire life being a waitress, but for now, while she was young, it was giving her time to think about other things that she might want to do before she actually had to do them. Besides, being a waitress allowed Elizabeth to spend some time with her friends and even spend time meeting new people. She wouldn't have been nearly as close to Damian as she was if she wasn't a waitress when he arrived, and there was a chance that, if she wasn't a waitress, she may have never gotten married to Ric again. Perhaps Ric hadn't taken that into account, but, he eventually conceded that, if Elizabeth wanted to keep her job, it wasn't his place to tell her what she could and couldn't do.

She sat at the counter, wiping it over and over. The lull had happened. She could just sit there and think. Take everything in. Her time in silence was short lived, however as a man walked in. She hadn't seen the man before, but Kelly's was a popular space for people who were just passing through. At times it seemed like the only place that Port Charles had. "Can I help you?"

"Could I get some coffee, please?"

"Sure," she smiled at him, "for here, or to go?"

"To go, please, I need to stop somewhere, just want something to keep me warm as I'm walking."

"Is it that far?"

"No," he shook his head, "it's just the Police Department."

"My husband works there," Elizabeth told the stranger. "Is there a reason why you're going?"

"Your… husband?"

"Ric Lansing. He's the district attorney."

"I see…" the man took his coffee and paid Elizabeth for it, leaving a five, knowing that it would be more than enough. "I'm sure we'll see each other again, then. Have a nice day, Mrs. Lansing."

"Yeah… you, too…" Elizabeth watched the man go, aware of the fact that she had ignored his question. Who was he, and why was he being so secretive?

"Elizabeth?"

Elizabeth turned around and saw Mike Corbin, her employer, Sonny's father, "Is something wrong, Mike?"

"Who was that guy?"

"I wish I knew," Elizabeth shrugged her shoulders. "He gave me a bad vibe. He said that he was going to the police department, then I asked him why and he didn't answer me. I told him that I was married to Ric and he just assured me that we would see each other again."

Mike chose to ignore the part about Elizabeth being married to Ric. He didn't like Ric at all, and it wasn't going to change, ever. His family was almost destroyed because of Ric and his vendetta against Sonny. Mike wouldn't lie, he did believe that Ric was getting better at being a human being as of late, but Mike wasn't sure if it was all just an act. "I swear, I've seen that man's face before."

"It looked really familiar to me, too. You don't think he's going to do something horrible to Ric, do you?"

"I think Ric can take care of himself… he always has." Ric had a way of getting out of situations that people would have thought were impossible to get out of. He was like a cat, nine lives and everything. "I'm sure that we're just worrying about it for no reason."

"Yeah, I hope you're right." Even with Mike's words of support, Elizabeth couldn't help but shake that funny feeling that she had. Why was it sticking in her mind so much? Maybe she really should have been worried.


	3. The Man Revealed

Journeylove- Congrats on being the first reviewer, I hope that you remain as steadfast with this story as you have in the past. Actually, I left you hanging for about four months, but we won't mention that. Besides, I was just doing what the prime time shows do, leave the summer with questions. Evil, I know. But, yeah, I'm back, so you can bask in the knowledge that you have something to do for a few minutes a day, reading one of these. Interesting that you mention Jesse, because… back when I was talking to my friend about the story, he asked me if I ever thought about naming Damian anything else, and I said that if I did name him anything else, it probably would have been Jesse. And then, like, two weeks later, I read online that they were casting for a character named 'Jesse' and that he was going to be involved with Maxie. Originally, I believe, he was supposed to be ethnic as well, but, as we've seen, Matt Marraccini is not. Not that there is anything wrong with it, I like Matt. Still, my friend and I joke around that the people at GH have me bugged and steal my ideas. Personal aside notwithstanding, there will be couple related drama for several of the couples, a lot of them, in fact. Characters that add to this drama shall come, one of them is shown here, too. Again, glad you're back. Hope you enjoy.

Story-

General Hospital-

He was going to gain weight by having his grandfather just randomly pop in with food from Kelly's every time he had a break, but that was a small price to pay for avoiding that which they attempted to pass off as food at General Hospital. Unfortunately for Damian he was all too well aware of the fact that his constant requests for Mike to leave the restaurant and bring him something to eat was having a negative impact on the job that Mike was supposed to be doing. It would take a lot for Bobbie to relieve Mike of his duties at Kelly's, but Damian wasn't ready to let that guilt be on his head. There was already far too much guilt that he had to contend with, adding any more would make him into a person that was too much like Sonny for his tastes. Damian loved Sonny as much as he possibly could, and he respected his father as well, but Damian didn't want to 'be' Sonny, that was the last thing that he wanted, and the last thing that Sonny wanted for him.

The avoidance of possible grief all culminated to him attempting to decipher what exactly it was that the hospital was giving him. He'd ordered a sandwich, a turkey sandwich. The hospital had managed to give him the bread without much of a problem, and the lettuce, but the meat… it didn't look very much like turkey.

She watched him from the other end of the cafeteria, wondering what it was that he was looking so intently upon. Maxie Jones slowly crept up, dressed in her general hospital uniform, the teal top that seemed to make her eyes stand out even more than usual. It didn't matter how they made her eyes look, though, because Damian would love her regardless of if her eyes looked great, or if they looked bad. He would love her no matter what. Maxie wrapped her arms around his neck, "Guess who?"

"I've got a one guessing game per hour limit, and I've already used this one up on the meat that's in this sandwich, can I at least have a hint?"

Maxie understood what was so perplexing the moment he explained about the sandwich, did he really expect the food to be edible? She tried to tell everyone that she had to give food to that they should just order a pizza or something, from an outside source. "Your ideal woman…"

"Lynda Carter? What are you doing here?"

Maxie scoffed, slapping his shoulder, "You know, that's the kind of thing that would drive a formerly perfectly content young, beautiful girlfriend to leave her perfectly handsome, young, doctor boyfriend."

"I see… and what would this handsome, young, doctor boyfriend have to do in order to keep his perfectly content young, beautiful girlfriend from leaving him?"

"You should know what that is…"

Damian looked up from the sandwich, Maxie grinned as their eyes met before he kissed her on the cheek, the angle permitting him from kissing her on the lips. "How's that?"

"A good start."

"Well, if this aforementioned, disgruntled, quite possibly soon to be ex-girlfriend would let the unassuming doctor boyfriend go, he might be able to give his girlfriend a little more incentive to stay with him."

Maxie did as requested, letting Damian go from her vice grip. Freed, he could move the chair out of the way and, in doing so, wrapped his arms around her waist as she wrapped hers around his neck once again, but their faces were facing each other. The glare from the bracelet that he got her for Christmas blinded him only for the slightest moment before he tilted his head down and kissed her on the lips. Damian wasn't big on the public display of emotion, especially in a place where such emotions could be seen as insulting, so, rather than let the passion that made him Sonny Corinthos's son run rampant, he pulled himself away just in time. He smiled at her, "Now, what do you have to say about that?"

"Much better…"

"Anything else?"

"Yeah, something else. Why the hell are you in love with Lynda Carter?"

"Have you seen Lynda Carter?" He said sarcastically. "Actually, my mom had a Wonder Woman fetish. Not so much that she decided to go and get the costume or anything, but she had a lot of merchandise. Pictures of the old show with Lynda Carter. I used to stare at those pictures for hours. She said that I was in love with Lynda Carter and I would do that little kid thing where I said I didn't like girls because they had cooties and then I would run away."

"You must have been the cutest kid ever."

"I'm sure that you were much cuter than I could ever hope to be. After all, you're much cuter than I am right now."

"That depends on who you ask…"

He smirked, letting go of Maxie and sitting back down. "You know how much I appreciate you making sure that you schedule a day where you're here volunteering while I'm on shift… but I know that must be hard on you with your class schedule. Are you sure about this?"

"I know that I don't want you to have to be alone…"

"I'm never alone, Maxie," Damian informed her. "I've almost always got Bobbie here, or Alan, or Monica, and someone from my family is almost always stopping in to check up on me, or Dillon… it's getting to the point where they should just give a waiting room to the people who are trying to look out for me."

"Come on, it can't be that bad."

"Really? It's gotten better, since I've been doing this for a few weeks, but the first few days…"

"How does that make you feel?"

"I don't know," he shrugged his shoulders. "I think it's great that so many people are concerned about my progress here, and if I can do what they want me to do. They're all telling me that they think I'll make a great doctor."

"Because we do think you will."

"But at the same time doesn't it belittle the faith that everyone, yourself included, has in me if you guys are constantly here to make sure I'm handling things? None of the other interns have family and friends that pull them away from their job continuously."

"I…" Maxie stopped herself. She hadn't taken into consideration what Damian may have thought about them coming in at such a constant rate. "I can stop working here when you're on shifts, if that's what you want."

"No, it isn't you, Maxie. It isn't you and it isn't your sister, you've been here longer than me, and this is a part of who you are. You enjoy doing this, it's why you've kept on doing it for so long… I'm just talking about everyone else. I mean, when Uncle Jason came in to see how I was doing I realized that something was up." It was a red flag. After all, Jason Morgan had a very publicly expressed contempt for the doctors of any hospital, after everything that they had done to him following his accident. Jason was the type of person who never came into the hospital unless it was an emergency. And for his job to be considered an emergency to Jason, that was something that made him curious.

"Why don't you talk to them?"

"I don't know, because I don't want to hurt them, I guess. My family loves me, and I love them… I just wish they wouldn't smother me so much. I realize that they're trying to make up for lost time, especially my father, but it's starting to feel like… like I can't get away from them, even when I want to."

"I still think you should talk to Sonny." Maxie still felt somewhat odd using his first name like that, but it was at his request. "He loves you, he'll understand. He's just overprotective of all his children. I've seen him with Michael, before you came around. He makes Mac look like he gives me and my sister space."

"Maxie…"

"No, really," she said with a grin, "He makes Mac, my Mac, Mac Scorpio, the former King of the Overprotective father kingdom, look like nothing. If you want me to be honest, Damian, Sonny's giving you more space than he normally would, especially after the accident…"

"I had to talk him into not keeping me under constant watch." Damian understood Sonny's motivation for doing what he did. After all, the boy almost died because of what Lorenzo Alcazar did to him, and what he could have done to Michael. Carly's involvement in the ordeal was still a closely guarded secret between Carly and Damian, something that kept their relationship on good terms. Damian could destroy Carly's life with such a simple statement, but he wouldn't do that. Even when he didn't care for Carly, he didn't want her life to be torn apart like that. "Believe me, the battle, it wasn't easy. I probably still have the scars."

"Well, as long as you're happy with the situation…"

"I'm as happy as I can be," Damian grabbed her hands, "and you make me happier than I could hope to be alone. But you know what would make me really, really happy?"

"What's that?"

"If you took a bite of this sandwich." He winked. "Come on, I'll know it's safe to eat if you don't start shaking on the floor after a few seconds… and I'm a doctor, so if you do, I'll be able to help you. It's a win, win!"

"I have a weak heart, remember? I don't think I should be taking such horrible risks with my health…"

"Fine, I'll eat it, but if I pass out, you have to get help."

"Why don't you just throw it away and get something out of the vending machines? The hospital just receives them, it doesn't touch the preparation. They have chips."

"You drive a hard bargain, Miss Jones… but I'll have to take you up on it. I don't have very many options…" a glance at the sandwich spurred another comment, "at least ones that aren't hazardous."

Port Charles Police Department-

Ric Lansing knew that the crime in Port Charles would never stop. And he also knew that there would never be a time when someone, quite possibly himself, would blame Sonny Corinthos, his brother, for the very crimes that were being committed. But Ric was getting better at it. Not every crime was automatically placed in the camp of 'reasons to bring Sonny down.' In fact, Sonny had really started to clean up his act, ever since he had a child who was old enough to be truly aware of what was going on around him. Michael could still be dealt with by the simple little white lies. Damian wasn't like that, he was a lot smarter, he knew what was going on and he wouldn't stand for it. That boy was responsible for so much change in his life, in Sonny's life, and in so many other people's lives.

Ric reached over and touched the picture that he had framed of him and Elizabeth on their honeymoon. They had spent it on the Caribbean, as far away from Sonny's own private island as possible, but they still had a lot of fun. Decent weather when New York was still suffering from the bitter chill of winter. What more could a person ask for?

"Ric?"

"Lucky… come in, please…"

Lucky Spencer did as he was instructed. Mac may have been his direct boss, but Ric was the DA, he had a certain amount of power himself. "I hope you don't mind me coming in like this."

"Not at all, is something the matter?"

"I just wanted to see how things were going with Elizabeth…"

"In other words, you were checking up on me." Ric snickered, somewhat hurt. "Making sure that I wasn't doing anything that was going to hurt Elizabeth again."

"Ric…"

"No, I understand why you're doing it, Lucky. Believe me, I do. I screwed up with Elizabeth so much the first time… it's a miracle that she's even giving me a second chance, and I realize that. I also realize that it's a miracle that you're trusting me to not hurt her this time around, but I want to make sure that you realize that we're not the same people that we were the first time. I'm not the same person. I'm different, better… more suitable for her. I promise you, Lucky…"

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything…"

Ric heard a somewhat familiar voice, one that he couldn't put a name to, but when he looked up and saw the man's face he realized who it was. "What are you doing here?"

"A simple hello would have sufficed."

"Answer the question," Ric said, standing up from his chair. "What would John Durant come to Port Charles for?" Maybe it wasn't an answer that he wanted.


	4. Seeds of Doubt

Journeylove- Well, at least you had stuff to read over the summer, right? If nothing else, does provide people with extreme amounts of time wasting material, but this isn't a bad thing. If I read a little more, I would probably have come around more often during the summer months. And, despite the fact that the central character is a doctor, I seriously have no clue what I'm talking about, or what you're talking about. What's a CRNA? I'm glad that you have such lofty desires. Being a doctor is a respectable thing, much better than people like me who just want to write. Truth be told, I didn't watch any of Dancing with the Stars, despite the fact that our beloved Kelly Monaco was a part of it. I loathe Reality Television on the big networks, and tend to shy away from it out of sheer protest for the huge amount of programs that pollute the airwaves. That said, I'm not sure about the decision to do the dance off, but, as far as I'm aware of, it wasn't necessarily ABC that did it, the fan reaction was big enough to merit the rematch, or something. Regardless, if she wins (and she probably will win, since soap viewers are loyal bastards, and guys will just vote for her because she's sexy), then that is that. If she doesn't, she gave it her all.

Story-

John Durant grinned the grin that showed his sinister intent, one that would not be spoken of aloud. No, Ric Lansing was the enemy. Not just because he was the District Attorney of Port Charles, but because he was Sonny's little brother. Half-brother, but brother nonetheless. Had Durant taken it upon himself to strike against Sonny a year before he did, Ric would have made the perfect ally. John had been watching Ric since he arrived in Port Charles, from afar. He watched as Ric fooled everyone into thinking that he meant nothing to Sonny, only to end up revealing that he wanted to destroy him, and he tried, lord how he tried. But now, Ric was becoming spineless, unable to do what he should have been doing. Unable to bring his brother down.

"I asked you a question," Ric said sternly. John Durant may have been one of the most powerful people in the country, but that didn't mean that Ric was going to bow down and let Durant treat him like he was some unskilled little pup. "I'd like an answer."

"You should know the answer to the question, Lansing. Why does anyone come to Port Charles, New York? Regardless of who they are, what's the one reason why they come?"

"The gazebo in the park," Ric commented dryly. "People love that gazebo. Don't they, Lucky?"

"It's nice." Lucky may have been a cop, but there was still a part of him that was Luke Spencer's son, and that part of Lucky was telling him that Durant wasn't a very good person. "I think I'll go and take some pictures of the gazebo when I get off duty."

"Ah, Mr. Spencer," Durant turned to face Lucky, "you're something of a celebrity in this town, aren't you? Son of the former mayor and noted schemer, Luke Spencer. Half-brother of the supposed Prince, Nikolas Cassadine… and onetime boyfriend of Mrs. Elizabeth Webber-Lansing, who just happens to be married to the man standing right over there. Some would say that you're her greatest love, Lucky…"

"I don't see why my wife has anything to do with the possible reasons that you would have for coming here," Ric was getting frustrated. He hated it when people tried to undermine his relationship with Elizabeth. He worked so hard getting it back to the level that it used to be, and making it better.

"Elizabeth and I are over," Lucky said, trying to help Ric out. "We had our chance, it didn't work out. She's the greatest person in the world, Durant, don't do anything to hurt her, especially when you're right here, in Port Charles. If you know this town as well as you know my family history then you would be well aware of the fact that Elizabeth's grandmother is Audrey Hardy, one of the most respected women in the state of New York. You try and bring Elizabeth down and people will turn on you so quick it'll make your head turn."

John wasn't impressed by Lucky's bravado. He'd dealt with bigger, worse people than Lucky Spencer. Nonetheless, John would not remain silent, "Some could take that as a threat, Officer Spencer. It's never a good idea to threaten a district attorney."

"It's merely a warning, and you're not my district attorney. Ric is."

"And he's doing such a wonderful job at it, isn't he?"

"You know what?" Ric shook his head, "If you came in here to swap records of who is doing better as a district attorney, then you can just get the hell out of this office and drive back over to New York where you belong."

"Ric's doing a good job as the DA."

"Why thank you, Lucky…" Ric didn't expect such a compliment from Lucky Spencer, of all people. They still didn't get along. Yet another bridge that Ric needed to repair.

"Especially considering the last person who had the power," Lucky added. He didn't like Ric, but he disliked Scott Baldwin a whole lot more.

Mac walked inside the room, "Why did someone give me the message that I should drop everything and get into your office as soon as possible, Ric?"

"Believe me, Mac," Ric began, "I didn't have anything to do with it."

"But I did," Durant turned to look at Mac. "Commissioner Scorpio. We've met a few times before, haven't we? Long before you had this seat of power, long before you lost the edge that gave you this seat. Now that I have the two most powerful forces of the law in Port Charles in the same room, and, one of their lackey's…"

"You will not speak to one of my officers like that, especially while I'm here," Mac snapped at Durant. They may have met, and Mac may have respected Durant, but he wasn't going to let anyone take potshots at the people from his force. They all meant so much to him, Lucky was one of the top, too. "Lucky does his job and he does it well, he's well on his way to a long career as a law-officer."

"Until he decides to go down the Spencer route, right? You know as well as I do how his father loves to think that he's one step above the law."

"I am not my father!" Lucky glared at Durant. He hated being compared to Luke. There was a time when Lucky wanted nothing more than to be his father, but that time of childlike innocence and pointless worship of his father had long since passed.

"I'll say it again, Durant, if you came here to just exchange barbs and insult the people of Port Charles who work to make this place a little bit safer at night, then you should just get the hell out of here, or tell us what it is you want, because this conversation stopped being interesting the moment you opened your mouth." Ric had taken a seat once more, but he wanted Durant gone. The sooner the better.

"I was just waiting for Mac to come, Ric. You don't have to be so testy." Durant leaned against Ric's desk, looking at the wedding picture for a moment before he turned his eyes away. "People say that I'm one of the best there is in the country, and, I'll admit, the praise is well worth it… New York is one of the biggest cities in the world, gentlemen, it's impossible to keep the streets completely devoid of any violence, but I work my hardest to make sure that my citizens can sleep a little better at night. You know what the first thing I see when I wake up in the morning and grab the paper is?"

"Your gut spilling out over your pajamas?" Lucky asked sarcastically. If Durant was going to play the insult game, Lucky wanted to show that he could push just as hard. He was, after all, a Spencer.

"How very… amusing…" Durant rolled his eyes. "You really should think about a career as a stage comedian, because the act that you put up when you put that badge on is so pathetic that it's already laughable. Back to the point, I see Sonny Corinthos or Jason Morgan on the front page… connected to something in the crime ring. And I ask myself, 'why is it that I can contain crime to a respectable level in a city that has millions upon millions of people… and the people in Port Charles can't even keep crime off of their streets?' I've been asking myself the same question for such a long time that I finally decided to do something about it… so, guess what? I'm here to lend my formidable skills to the crusade of ending the regime of Corinthos and Morgan."

"We don't need your help," Ric said.

"Oh, but I think you do. After all, you haven't made a single allegation against Sonny in how long?"

"Sonny hasn't done anything, or been connected to anything, that could be considered breaking the law," Mac informed Durant. "If you're as smart as you are, if you watch Sonny as much as you do, then you should know that ever since that kid of his started running around Port Charles he's really tried to keep his act together."

"You speak of the bastard, don't you?"

"Don't call him that!" Ric growled, hand gripping the seat of his chair a little harder than usual. Damian was his nephew, Ric wasn't going to let Durant just treat him like he didn't matter. "His name is Damian, he's an intern at General Hospital, he wants to be a doctor… what does that say about his character?"

"That he's a better actor than Spencer over there…" Durant said with a chuckle. "I've met the person in question… ran into him in New York City right at the turn of the year… with your daughter, I might add, Commissioner. Oh, he tried to pull the act that Sonny didn't want anything to do with me, that Maxie just wanted to meet the guy that her dad respected ever so much. I didn't buy it."

"Maybe because you're blind," Ric commented. "Damian would never hurt anyone… I'm sure everyone in this room would agree with me on that."

Lucky nodded, "I was wrong about the kid when he came, but I can see who he really is… he's basically a choirboy."

Mac turned to his side. He didn't like Damian that much. Mac was well aware of the fact that Damian was different from his father, he was also constantly being told how much Maxie loved him… but neither of those were the question. The question was if Mac believed that he would never intentionally hurt someone… and he had an answer for that. "They're right, he's not dangerous to anyone."

"And that is why I need to be here, in Port Charles. Because you people are so bewitched by whatever Sonny Corinthos throws at you that you're more than willing to believe that his own child, a product of his makeup, is incapable of being anything like his father."

"You can't just come in here and take control of the operations in Port Charles, Durant," Ric said, "it doesn't work like that. I'm still in charge."

"I pulled a few strings, Lansing, you don't have to worry about me taking your job, yet, but I've got myself a new assignment that allows me to make base here in Port Charles for the foreseeable future. In other words, I'm going to be here, making sure that every time you screw up there's someone there to make note of it. That goes for all of you. I'll pick my desk out tomorrow."

The trio watched John Durant leave, shutting the door behind him. They all stayed silent until they were certain that he was far enough away that he couldn't hear anything. Lucky was the first to speak, "I can't believe the nerve of that guy…"

"Don't let him get to you, Lucky," Mac advised. "John Durant is a master at playing mind games, that's how he manages to get the power that he does. I won't lie, he's a damned good attorney… maybe even better than Ric, but he's also seedy and underhanded."

"The important thing is that we make sure that we just keep on doing our job the exact same way that we're doing it. We can't let Durant think that he got to us," Ric finally let his grip of death off of the chair, "because if we do, then he wins."

"Lucky, could you leave the two of us alone?" Mac requested. "I need to speak with Ric about what we're going to do about all of this and it would be better if it was just the two of us."

"I thought you said that you respected me…"

"I do, but respect has nothing to do with this. This is just procedure. You're an officer right now, Lucky. Maybe in a few years you'll be high enough to be involved in something like this… but not right now. Please, I'll tell you everything that's important, but I need to be with Ric, alone."

Ric waited for Lucky to leave, "So, what are we going to do?"

"Did you know about Damian seeing Durant?"

"I thought you said that we were going to discuss what we were going to do about Durant."

"That was just smoke to get Lucky out of here… I need to know, Ric, did he tell you anything about meeting with John Durant when they were in New York?"

"Damian's my nephew, Mac, not my son… maybe I shouldn't be the one that you're talking to about this, don't you think that it would be much better for you if you spoke to Sonny?"

"Answer the question!" Mac demanded, leaning over the side of the desk and getting into Ric's face. It was true, Ric wasn't Damian's father, but Ric was close to his nephew, Mac knew that. It was like him and Robin… almost.

"I didn't know anything about Damian seeing John Durant when he went to New York with Maxie, Mac. I don't see why this has anything to do with him being here right now."

"What if he's telling the truth?" Mac wondered. "What if Durant isn't lying about Damian putting on an act, all of this good natured stuff that he's giving us, what if it really is just a ploy to gain trust that way Sonny can get away with more than he already does?"

"Mac… you're being way too critical of the situation. You know Damian…"

"No, I don't. Nobody does, probably not even Maxie. Think about it, Ric… how much of himself has he really let people see?"

Ric shook his head, "I trust Damian, Mac. Maxie trusts him, too. So does Lucky, and Elizabeth, and Bobbie, and both Alan and Monica Quartermaine… do you really think that he could fool that many people, and more?"

"I want you to watch him…"

"I'm not going to spy on my own nephew!"

"Fine," Mac shook his head, "but if my daughter ends up hurt because of something that your nephew was involved in, don't think I won't find a way to make sure that you suffer for it!" His threat, and it was a threat, not a warning, delivered, Mac walked out of the office, slamming the door behind him. Leaving Ric alone, silently questioning the fact that maybe, just maybe, Durant could have been right.


	5. Hope of the Future

Journeylove- I did not expect Kelly to lose, and again, I didn't watch it, but, they did clearly state, apparently, that she was the winner of the first season, so it's not like she had her crown taken away, John just 'proved' that the audience liked him more. Or something. Thanks for the information on the CRNA test, and I hope that, should you take it, you pass. Best of luck to you. As far as Durant goes, you're supposed to hate him, that's the point of the character, and the fact that you do hate him as much as you do shows that the people at GH are doing their job. I, for one, love Durant, not because I think he's a nice guy, but because they need some guy like Durant on GH. I want to keep on going with that type of Durant in this story, making him a central villain of the piece, though not the only one, of course. As far as Jason goes, I'm enjoying the storyline a lot. I want Jason to stay away from Sonny, I really do. I want the story on the show to divert away from the Sonny hour. But, as far as the story goes, look for Jason to remain the Jason that you know and love.

Story-

Harbor View Towers-

If any of the many tall tales about what a person went through when someone was thinking about them, be it sneezing, ears wiggling, or anything in between, Damian likely would have never gone through an hour in Port Charles without having whatever malady that was supposed to strike an individual during that time strike him. The boy would remain blissfully unaware of the question of motives that anyone, even his own Uncle, was bringing into question for a small amount of time. If there was a single person who would make him suffer because of constant bewilderment it was Mac. Damian wasn't sure what he needed to do in order to fully gain Mac's trust, he wasn't even sure that it was possible. Yes, he had screwed up plenty of times in the past, and yes, Maxie would find herself in a state of constant danger just for being near him, but none of that was his fault. He couldn't help who he was, he couldn't change who his father was, he couldn't change what Sonny did, and he tried to find some way to change it, to distance himself from that world, from that man, when he realized that nothing was going to change. But Damian couldn't do it. Sonny Corinthos was his father, and, once Damian stopped seeing him as a mobster and started seeing him as a father he saw that Sonny was a loving man, just as, if not more so, than his own mother.

It was her words that constantly rang through his head, almost every day. Ana-Maria had given him a parting piece of advice: not to let people judge him based on who they thought he was, to let them judge him on who he really was. She knew. Damian didn't understand it then, but he understood it now… his mother knew that he was going to find his father, she knew that everything was going to happen. Ana-Maria had never forgotten what Sonny Corinthos did, who he was. She may have even kept track of him as he rose from a common thug under Scully's rule to become the most prominent organized crime lord on the east coast. With Alcazar dead, by Damian's hand, Sonny was the head honcho of the business. That was something that fell into Sonny's lap, though. Nobody anticipated Alcazar's death, and nobody thought that it would be the innocent college student who just came to Port Charles looking for love and acceptance who would bring an end to a man who had caused prolonged suffering for just about everyone in the family, but that was exactly how it went.

The elevator ride to the penthouses where his family, immediate and a sizable chunk of his extended family, made their residence seemed longer than normal. He wished that he could relax, but he knew that he couldn't. There were still classes to take. He may have had an early internship, but that didn't mean that he was completely finished with his schooling. Far from it. He had only started his third year when he arrived to Port Charles, now he was barely beginning the second half of that year, and the workload wasn't getting any easier. His grades weren't as high as they could have been. Damian was entirely capable of straight A's, and at times he had gotten them, but with everything that had happened to him it was a miracle that he pulled the grades that he did. The time that he spent recovering from the accident that almost ended his life took him out of the equation for some time, and while the teachers didn't drop him out of their courses entirely they also couldn't grant him class participation points, because he wasn't there. It was in that section that his grades took the biggest hit, in that section which he lost the edge that he had. It didn't matter, solid B's were respectable, especially for someone who was going through so much, and he would try harder, bring his grade point average back up.

Sonny, of course, had nothing but pride in the boy. For Sonny it was like seeing the potential that he had to throw away finally being fulfilled. Michael was a good student, excellent in fact, but Michael wasn't Sonny's blood… he didn't get any inherent traits from Sonny, Damian did. People had often said that Sonny would have made one hell of an 'enter profession here' had he not dropped out of high school before he graduated, and Damian was one of them. Sonny was bright, incredibly bright. It was sad to know that Sonny let his personal demons make him run away from a potential future. One that wouldn't require him to hide his family in a penthouse that was dozens of stories in the air, where he wouldn't need every vehicle that he owned, and even the ones that other people owned, to have bulletproof windows and frames… but if that were to happen, Damian wouldn't have been born, Jason would have never found the happiness that he did find, happiness that had truly eluded him while he was still calling himself Jason Quartermaine and a multitude of other seemingly random events that all had Sonny Corinthos involved in them at some point or another. The hand that Sonny had been dealt was his destiny, and the destiny of the people who he touched was in that hand as well. Still, as often as people looked at Damian and asked 'what would he be like if he were more like his father,' Damian had probably asked himself when he looked at Sonny, 'what would he be like if he were more like me?'

Finally, the doors of the elevator opened up, giving Damian the familiar view of the all too empty hallway that connected both penthouses. The doors were closed, as they frequently were, and Max was right there, standing watch and getting paid to do it. Of all Sonny's employers, Max was the one who felt the most like family, outside of Leticia, who was employed in a different field. Max was like an unofficial Uncle to Michael and Morgan, at times even being referred to as 'Uncle Max' when he was handling Morgan. Damian would never forget that it was Max who helped him considerably when he needed to come to terms with his father, the person that he really was, and the person who he appeared to be to other people. Max was instrumental in that aspect of Damian's life, and he would always be indebted.

"Save anyone?" Max asked, a genuine smile coming from him as he looked at the boy, who obviously needed some time to himself. In Damian, Max saw a lot of hope for the future, a generation of people not forced to live the life that those who had come before them lived. It wasn't like that for Max… he was born into the family and he was expected to stay in the family. With a last name like DiMaggio, what else was he supposed to do? Perhaps make pizza, but Max couldn't provide for people doing something like that, although he did make some rather wonderful garlic bread. Not like Sonny, of course, but decent nonetheless. There was a time when Max wondered if it was possible for him to have a child who wouldn't have to do the same things that he did. A child who could be anything that he or she wanted to be. At first he wasn't sure that it was possible, and then Damian came into their lives, all of their lives. People thought that only those in the family were impacted by Damian's arrival. It wasn't true. Damian was a symbol for almost everyone in Sonny's regime, a beacon… a doctor, someone who was going to help the people who they might end up hurting. Maybe nobody else was aware of it, but people were trying to have children again, trying to let their future rest in the hands of fate instead of believing in something that was predestined.

"I saved myself," Damian replied, returning the warm smile. "I saved myself from getting some strange cafeteria disease…"

"You tried to eat something that they make at GH?"

"I purchased something that they make at GH… I don't know if you would consider that trying to eat it. I stared at it for awhile, tried to get my girlfriend to take a bite before I sunk my teeth into it."

"Did Maxie break up with you?"

"Max!"

"Well what do you expect me to think, Damian?" Max replied coyly, shrugging as the grin widened. "You try to possibly poison your girlfriend, it isn't like that's something that people don't break up over…"

"I didn't try to poison my girlfriend…"

"You attempted to persuade your girlfriend into ingesting possibly hazardous materials, how is that not a poisoning plan gone awry?"

"You know, I could have my father terminate your employment due to constant belittlement of my motives…"

"But you wouldn't do that, would you?"

"No, Max, never to you," he liked Max too much, and Max was, despite his job, something of a voice of reason. Much like Max saw hope in Damian, Damian saw hope in Max, a person who might be able to break free of the shackles in a way that his father and Jason had never been able to do. Max just needed to give it a try, but it wasn't Damian's call to make. "Anyone else home?"

"Just about everyone, I think. I took a dinner break myself… got something to eat from Kelly's…"

"They really must get half of their business from us…"

"Sonny's the son-in-law of the owner, that pretty much means that we have to give him the money that he gives us back to her. Plus, Bobbie's great."

"That she is," he said softly. Bobbie was the first member of 'the family' who didn't try to push him away, aside from Michael. Even before Courtney, Bobbie was there for him, probably because she could somewhat understand what he was going through. She was the one who gave away a child, only to have the child, Carly, come back, but the similarities gave her a unique spin of the situation, and, since at the time he wasn't very thrilled with Sonny, Bobbie was just the person with enough distance from the problem to get through to him. "See you later, Max."

"Don't eat too much," Max responded dryly, his back turned as he heard the door open and then shut behind him. The grin returned. Yeah, he gave everyone hope.

Across the hall, Jason was busy doing one of the only things that allowed him to get his mind off of anything that was bothering him: he was playing pool. Technically it was a game that was meant to be played with another person, but Jason found solace in the fact that he could play the game at any time, by himself, at his own pace. Besides, people liked to play for money, and Jason didn't like taking people's money. They figured that, since he was brain dead, it somehow did something to his pool playing abilities. Faulty logic… incredibly faulty, but, on the right days, Jason would use it to his advantage.

Even with the distraction that was granted by the pool table, Jason couldn't shake his mind off of the feeling that he had in the back of his mind. He was worried about Sonny. That wasn't very odd, since Jason frequently worried about Sonny, some would say that he worried about Sonny too often, and Jason would agree with them at times, but Jason thought that worrying about Sonny at that particular moment was actually worth the effort.

Sonny was the type of person who took everything to heart. Jason couldn't be like that. He brushed as much of life off as he could, it was how he managed to survive as often as he did, how he was able to keep himself from allowing his guilt to drive him crazy, like Damian was doing with Alcazar's murder. Jason's accident had made him almost perfect for what he was expected to do. It wasn't a pleasant thought at times, but it was true. The accident had made him an almost completely emotionless killing machine. But anyone who thought that Jason Morgan didn't care about people was completely missing that which was right there in front of him. Jason cared about people, a lot. That was why he was worrying about Sonny, because Sonny was his best friend. It had very little to do with the fact that Sonny was his business partner. The fact was, Sonny was his friend. He looked up to Sonny like a big brother, and, at times, an odd father-figure.

The problem with knowing Sonny so well was that Jason knew when Sonny was going to do something that Sonny shouldn't have done. He'd seen Sonny do things that were stupid and reckless. When Sonny gave up hope that was when he was the most dangerous… not to other people, but to himself, and to the people that he cared about the most. What was the worst that could happen? Jason had asked himself that question many times in his head, and the answer was always something bad. Sonny could end up dead, or worse, one of the children could end up dead, and even worse, Damian could revert back to the person that he used to be, running away from Sonny, distancing himself from his father. It was an unlikely chance, but that didn't mean that it wasn't there. That last option was the one that would hurt the most. Sonny couldn't take his son thinking that he was some sort of monster, not again.

"Hey, Jason, what are you up to?" Dillon Quartermaine, Jason's first cousin, half-cousin, whatever, walked down from his room. Living with Jason and Courtney was, at times, a trying experience. Jason wasn't a talkative person. Anyone could say what they wanted about the Quartermaine's, and they frequently did, but that family did a lot of talking. Screaming mostly, but nonetheless, they worked things out… in their own extremely dysfunctional way.

And, as expected, Jason was giving Dillon the silent treatment. Eyes never once glancing over as he lined up his shot and released his hold on the cue, sending the cue ball racing towards one of the pockets, hitting it and sending it inside with masterful ease. Dillon was impressed. He sucked a pool… even tried to get Jason to teach him once, that didn't go very well. Dillon wasn't athletically inclined, it was why he was blacklisted at the high school, even with his social status and his money, he was still 'Dillon, who can't make a free throw shot for the life of him.' It didn't really matter. After a year of gym he was able to get out of it and never had to worry about making a fool of himself in that particular way again… didn't stop the stigma from following him. People just liked to knock him and his family down a few pegs. Dillon couldn't blame them, he was rather fond of it, too.

"Dillon…" Jason finally looked up. Was he desperate enough to actually ask Dillon, an outsider, for advice?

"Yeah?"

"Never mind…" apparently not. Jason wouldn't deny the fact that, after spending so much time with Dillon, he had become somewhat fond of the boy, even if he was still mystified by Dillon's choice of hair styling, dumbfounded even. Jason had gone through some bad hair choices in his time, but nothing was quite that… odd. No matter how much Jason liked Dillon, though, it didn't change the fact that Dillon wasn't one of them. Dillon was something else, something innocent, something that wasn't supposed to be tainted.

Dillon's eyebrow went up, curious as to what had almost happened, and why it didn't. But, he knew better than to ask questions. If Jason were a telepath, Dillon would probably be dead even for thinking about it. "All right…" at times Dillon felt like he was becoming part of the melting pot, and then there were times when he wondered just how much of an outsider he was.


	6. Pleasures Denied

Corinthos Household-

Another sandwich was made. This time by Damian himself. It wasn't going to be nearly as hazardous as the sandwich that he had bought at the hospital. Sonny Corinthos only used the finest meat, like Black Forest ham, glazed over in honey. Sonny could some wonderful things with honey. If there was one aspect of Sonny's persona that Damian wished he could emulate, aside from Sonny's intense love for his family and everyone he held dear, it was Sonny's ability to cook. But Damian knew better than to even hope to try. He'd attempted to make food before. It usually went quite badly. He was more competent it at than Carly, but so were most monkeys. That wasn't an insult to Carly as a person, merely an insult to her ability to cook, which was well worth insulting. Carly herself would not deny that her culinary skills were completely lacking in just about every possible way.

The sandwich was placed on the plate as he grabbed a soda from the large refrigerator. It was important that he got something in his stomach before he started studying. Brain food was what helped him get the grades that he got. That and a severe desire to never fail, to never have to worry about being considered a failure. Damian knew that it was all too easy for him to fail, and he did everything that he could to make sure that it never happened.

The doctor in training was ready to go into his room and relax while he ate for a few minutes before he began to study when he saw her standing there on the stairs. Carly was looking at him. Before it would have made him incredibly uncomfortable to be glared at by his step-mother, but now the discomfort was only marginal. They had patched things up as much as they could, but nobody would deny that there would always be something that was unspoken between them. A lot of it had to do with her involvement with Lorenzo, with the accident. Damian didn't blame her, not completely, but he was still hurt that she was so desperate to get rid of him that she did something like that, something that went so terribly wrong. Carly may not have wanted him dead, but she set the plan into motion.

Carly was never sure how to approach Damian. She cared about him, in her own way she could probably even say to people, so long as he wasn't around, that she loved him like she loved a close friend. Damian wasn't a close friend though, but Carly still felt a connection with him, like, if she needed him for something, anything, he would be right there for her the moment she asked.

"Hi, Carly," Damian finally said, leaving the snack on the nearby table before walking closer to her.

"You're off shift?"

He nodded, "Your seventy-two hour vacation from me has ended for a little while… sorry, those are the rules."

"Don't say it like that," she replied, turning away. "You make it seem like I don't want you here, Damian, and I do. I do now, at least."

"I'll take that as a compliment."

"That's what it was," she smiled lightly. "Sonny's not here right now. I don't know where he is, he didn't tell me."

"I'm sure he'll come back, Carly, he always does."

Carly didn't let it show, but it was a fear of hers that the statement that Damian had made wouldn't be true. That, eventually, Sonny wouldn't be coming home. She knew that it was a possibility, that she would have to explain to Michael that his father was dead, and, if it happened in a few years, which she hoped it did, she would have to do the same thing with Morgan. Rather than dwell on the negative thoughts that were swirling in her mind, Carly attempted to focus on something positive, "You know, I have so much respect for you and for what you're doing. I tried to be a nurse once, it ended badly."

"I'm sure that if you gave it everything that you had you would have done it, Carly," Damian said genuinely. "If there's one thing that I've always known about you, it's that you're stubborn, you don't give up, ever. The reason that you failed at being a nurse was because, in the end, it wasn't something that you wanted badly enough. I do want this badly enough, though. At least, I think I do."

"What makes you doubt yourself?"

He shrugged his shoulders, "I'm always second guessing myself, you know that. I'm my own worst enemy, one of the many things that I got from dad was the way that I beat myself up needlessly. I try and tell dad about it, try and get him to stop, and yet I do the exact same thing. Hypocritical of me, I know, but there isn't much that I can do about it. We are who we are… nothing can change that."

"You don't think that I've changed?"

"I think that you've allowed yourself to be more open with me, with yourself, and with the people around us. I don't think that you've changed so much as you've shown a different side of yourself that was always there, but that you just chose not to show."

"Damian!"

The adult conversation that step-mother and step-son were having was completely interrupted by the sound of the child running down the stairs. Michael, energetic as always, was ecstatic to see his older brother. Damian, likewise, was thrilled to see Michael. The boy brought so much to his life, him and Morgan. He'd even managed to get rid of his phobia of holding his infant brother… somewhat. "Hey, kid." Damian looked down to see the boy latched onto his leg. Michael liked to do that.

"Did you miss me?"

He lowered himself to the ground, "What are you talking about? Of course I missed you. What kind of big brother wouldn't miss someone so cool as you? Whenever I was bored I wished that I was back home so that I could spend some time with you, watch you play with your trucks or your new video game…"

"I can still beat you, you know."

"I'm getting better!" He defended his honor in the realm of video games. Not that there was much honor to defend. Damian was never big on the video games, even in the days when the Nintendo was all the rage. Sure, he requested one, even got it for a birthday, but after he got it the thing fell into misuse. It was fun to have for a little while, but he lost interest. He'd still progressed a long way from the boy who played Mario Brothers and died when he hit the first goomba.

"Not good enough…"

"You know what, I'm going to make sure that you take those words back," he scooped the boy up in his arms, "come on, we're going to go play any game that you want and I'm going to get at least half the points you get!"

"No you're not!"

"Good luck!" Carly called out to Damian as she watched them turn around the corner. He would need it. Michael was so good at those games that it scared Carly, not because he was so good, but because it probably meant that he spent more time playing them than he should have. Michael's grades didn't suffer, he was still near the top of his class, but Michael didn't do much in the way of socializing with people. Damian would take him out, or she and Sonny, or Jason and Courtney, or Max, or anyone else in the family, but Michael didn't really spend much time with people his own age. At times that scared her. Was she denying her child the chance at being truly happy?

Scorpio Household-

Mac walked in from his day at the office, the encounter with John Durant still ringing in his mind. He wouldn't be able to forget it any time soon, Durant had played him like a fiddle, and Mac wasn't even aware of it until it was too late. But the damage had been done, Mac was questioning Damian's intent, and the exact happenings that went down when his daughter and Damian went to New York City. He yelled out her name, "Maxie?"

Georgie and Maxie were upstairs in her room, spending time together. Now that they both had boyfriends, ones who just happened to be best friends, they had connected on levels that they never thought possible. They were already intensely close, but when Maxie got together with Damian and when he forged that strong bond with Dillon it was like another part of their own relationship had been created. They stopped talking about any plans that they were plotting for something that would be akin to a double date when they heard their father calling to them. Maxie called out to Mac as she got up from her bed and headed towards the door, "Coming!"

Maxie loved Mac, even though Mac wasn't their blood father that didn't matter. Mac was a better dad than Frisco, he was a better parent than Felicia. He was the best thing that had ever happened to them before they fell in love with their boyfriends, but everything wasn't all nice and happy… Mac could be more than a handful. Overly protective, harsh and judgmental. True, he was just being a dad, but he was being a dad who moonlighted as a tyrant. Neither Maxie nor Georgie appreciated that much. She made her way down the stairs, followed closely by her little sister. It was easy to see by the look on Mac's face that he was upset about something. Maxie couldn't think about anything that she had done that would merit such a stern face, it scared her in a way. 19 years old or not, Maxie was still incredibly afraid of Mac. Not that he would hurt her physically, but when it came to his punishments. She did still live under his roof.

"You and I need to have a talk, young lady…"

"Dad… what happened? Why are you so upset?"

"Because you lied to me, Maxie! You know how much I hate it when you lie to me. Each time I think that I can trust you again you do something that makes me wonder if I'll ever be able to really trust you!"

"What happened? Just tell me! The only way I'm going to know is if you actually tell me what I did wrong." She was still drawing a blank.

"You went to New York with him…"

"I told you that. I called you all the time like you wanted, I even made sure that you knew that we were getting a hotel room. Why do you think that I lied to you about that?"

"Because you didn't tell me what really happened when you were in New York, Maxie. You neglected to inform me of the fact that you and John Durant had a visit…"

"How…"

"Yeah, see? You lied to me about that… and now you can't cover it up. I can't believe I let you do that. I should have known that it would be for something stupid, instead of just a date, like you said it was."

"Dad, you're not being fair…"

"Stay out of this, Georgie," Mac said harshly to his other daughter, making her take a step back.

"Don't talk to her like that!" Maxie grumbled at her father. "Just because you're mad at me doesn't mean that you have any right to take it out on Georgie. You're always doing that, dad, making it seem like we're two sides of the same person. We're different, Georgie's who she is and I'm who I am, we make our own mistakes, different mistakes. I make a lot more than she does."

"You're telling me that she didn't know about you meeting with John Durant?"

"I'm telling you exactly that, because she didn't." The reason they went to see John Durant was because of Carly, and Damian had made Maxie promise not to tell a single person about the reasons. "I don't see why you're so upset. We ran into John Durant. I know New York is a big place, but he was there, the odds that we would have seen him were also there…"

"Damian's working for his father."

"What are you talking about? That's insane!" Maxie couldn't believe that Mac would do something so mean as make it seem like Damian was working for Sonny, and he called her the liar. "Damian hates what his father does… just like I hate what you do…"

"I protect people, Sonny doesn't…"

"I mean when you act like this, when you try and find a way to make sure that I can't see the person that I love, or that Georgie can't see Dillon again… I suppose that this whole ordeal is going to put both of them on suspension from seeing either of us… for the millionth time."

"Keep talking to me like that and I'll make sure that something like that does happen…"

"Maxie, knock it off!" Georgie ordered, pulling at her sister, "I don't want to lose Dillon again, just drop it. Give dad some time to cool down and then we'll talk about it again… please, Maxie, don't screw this up."

"I'm watching him…"

"You're always watching him," Georgie's advice, while sound, would not be followed, not while her father was consumed with the desire to destroy her boyfriend. "So what else is new…" she shook her head and threw her arms up in the air, "You know what, when you get like this I can't even talk to you… I'm going back to my room, call me when you calm down!"

Mac watched as her daughter predictably stormed up the stairs, hearing the door slam. Maxie never appreciated exactly what Mac did for her. He protected her as much as he could, why couldn't she understand that?


	7. Distanced

Kelly's-

Ric couldn't believe how badly the day had turned out. It had gone from being one of the better days of his career, where nothing appeared to be going wrong, to the worst day that he had been through in recent memory. It appeared that any joy that Ric may have been feeling as a spillover from his marriage had long since been dissolved. But all was not full of darkness in Ric's world. As he walked inside the eatery he saw the one single bright thing that would always be there to make him feel better. His wife.

Elizabeth waved to her husband as she continued to take the order of the person who she was waiting on. Her shift would be over soon. Sometimes she stayed after, wanting a little extra money, wanting to show that she could be independent for just a few hours more. Ric made more than enough money, he had more than enough money, to keep her stable and happy for the rest of her life, but Elizabeth didn't want that. Her grandmother had remained strong and employed during her entire marriage, showing Elizabeth that just because there was a ring on her finger it didn't mean that she needed to drop everything and become a housewife.

Ric knew that Elizabeth's job was important to her. Even though he had attempted to get her to stop working so that she could focus on her true love he finally gave in and let her keep the job. Marriage was all about compromise. That was why their first attempt went so badly. Ric tried to do as much as he could to keep Elizabeth happy, but he never really asked what would make her happy. His biggest mistake, and it cost him his wife. Luckily, it didn't cost him Elizabeth forever. Knowing that she was busy, he walked over to the counter and sat at one of the stools, mulling over everything that had happened.

He didn't want to believe it. He didn't want to think that his nephew could have been putting on an act that would fool them all into believing that he was some good natured boy, only to show his true nature as some sort of sleeper agent for his father. If it was true then he deserved a lot of praise for his acting. Ric had seen the way he acted towards his father a few times. He truly believed that there was a time when Damian genuinely loathed Sonny for what he was, what he represented. And it wasn't unheard of… people getting passed Sonny and his defenses. Ric had done it when he first came to Port Charles as well. Maybe that was why it was so hard to just brush off, because it was something that Ric himself had done. Like uncle like nephew wasn't really a cliché, but there was a chance that history had repeated itself. Doubt was a lawyer's worst enemy. And Ric was battling that foe, and losing steadily.

Elizabeth finally finished taking the order and took the ticket to the back, putting it on the spike where the cook would eventually take it and begin to prepare the food that was ordered. Mike wasn't there, he had turned in, giving the other chef some overtime to help pay for some bills. Mike was like that, sacrificing his time, his money, for people if they needed it, even though he had troubles of his own. So selfless… Elizabeth saw that in Damian. In some strange way, she saw it in Sonny as well. But her newly anointed in-laws were not the core of her focus at that moment. No, it was on her husband. "Hey there, stranger… you don't look like you're from around these parts."

"Someone told me that I needed to see the most beautiful waitress in all of New York, in all of the east coast, in fact… you wouldn't happen to know where I could find this mysterious woman, would you?"

"I might be able to give you a hint or two… depending on what you have to offer me. I don't work cheap, you know."

"Maybe this will be enough," Ric got up and leaned over the counter, kissing Elizabeth tenderly before pulling away and smiling, "Or, I could just leave you a really nice tip."

"I wouldn't mind that second one…" Elizabeth laughed, but she was putting on an act. She knew when Ric was unnerved by something. "Honey, are you all right? You seem a bit distracted."

"I'm fine…"

"Ric… we agreed that we wouldn't make the mistakes that we made the last time we tried this marriage thing. And one of the biggest mistakes that we made was never talking to each other about our problems. We've been doing such a good job at not making that error… don't ruin it, please."

"I'm worried…"

"About what?"

"Is Mike here?"

"No, he went home early… why?"

"Just making sure that I didn't have to worry about him coming in here and yelling at me, telling me that I was trying to destroy the good name of his family." Mike's family happened to be Ric's family, for the most part. Damian was a member of that family. Ric didn't want Grandpa Mike coming and stirring up trouble. They would never see eye to eye, and that was Ric's fault, yet another mistake that he had made. One of many. "I got a visitor today in the office… John Durant…"

"That's who that guy was!"

"What are you talking about, Elizabeth?" Ric wasn't expecting that reaction from the name, but Elizabeth seemed to be interested in the man, and that made Ric interested in why Elizabeth was so invested in John Durant. As far as Ric was aware, they had never met.

"That guy, John Durant, he came into Kelly's today and got a coffee to go. I thought he looked familiar, but I couldn't put my finger on it. He asked me how to find the police station, and where to find you… and I asked him why he was looking for you and he never said anything, he just left. I didn't get a very comforting vibe from him."

"Nobody would," Ric said smugly. "John Durant doesn't exactly bring out the warm fuzzy feelings. Most of the time people feel like they need to take a long shower after they've encountered him to wash off the taint that he brings…"

"What did he say?"

Ric looked at his wife, proceeding with caution. It wasn't that Elizabeth loved Damian, because she did, it was that Elizabeth was his first friend and they had a very strong connection, one that went well beyond anything that Ric could hope to understand. But, he remembered the way that Elizabeth looked at him when she told him not to lie to her. He couldn't break that trust, not again, not so soon. "Apparently, Damian saw John Durant on New Years Eve when he went on that trip with Maxie. Durant swears that it was because Sonny wants to destroy Durant before Durant can destroy Sonny."

"Even if that were true, why would Damian be involved?"

"Because, according to Durant, Damian has been fooling all of us into thinking that the way that he presents himself, the long lost son of Sonny, looking for a place in his father's world, is just that, an act. John Durant believes that Damian is really more involved with Sonny and the organization than we're led to believe…"

"That's just stupid," Elizabeth said, trying to hold back her laughter. "Damian would never involve himself in Sonny's operations. He loves his father, but he hates what Sonny and Jason do, I know he does, he's told me about it…"

"I know…"

"I don't believe John Durant would come into town just to destroy the reputation of someone who has such a wonderful future. I knew that some people could be evil, but that's just…" she shook her head, "It's not like anyone who's ever spent time with Damian would believe Durant…" Elizabeth saw Ric's eyes look away. It took a second for her to understand why he did it, and when she did realize it, she couldn't believe herself. "Ric…"

"What?"

"No, Ric," she said, stunned. "Not you… you can't…"

"Elizabeth…"

"You know him, Ric. Tell me that you don't believe what John Durant was telling you… tell me that you know that it's all just a lie."

"I don't know what to believe, Elizabeth!" Ric said, frustrated. "I want to believe my gut feeling… I want to believe that anything that I'm thinking, any question of Damian's motives are just in my head… but it wouldn't be the first time that something like this has happened to Sonny, to us. It's my job to protect the people here…"

"And Damian is one of the people that you should protect. He loves you, Ric. He's the only one in your family who will always stand up for you, no matter what you do… he doesn't do it because he's putting on an act, he does it because he believes that you deserve a chance to be a member of the family. For you to just throw that back in his face… it's very disappointing."

"I didn't say that I believed John!"

"No, but you didn't say that you didn't, either…"

"Elizabeth…"

She shrugged him off, "I need to take care of the group that just walked in, Ric. But, you should know that I choose to believe Damian over whatever that man is trying to make you believe… and I'm not the one who is blood related to him. I know him, Ric, I thought you did as well."

Corinthos Household-

Michael had bested him, as expected, but Damian did do better than he expected at the video game of his brother's choice. Michael, of course, claimed that he let Damian score that many points, but Damian chose to believe that he was improving in his skills as a gamer, albeit only slightly.

The fun time with Michael proved an ample distraction, but he couldn't act like it was the only thing that mattered to him. It wasn't. He still had a test to study for, and medical school tests weren't nearly as easy as the high school tests that Dillon and Georgie had to contend with. They really needed to appreciate those days while they still had them.

There was a knock at his door that made him turn his head up from the book, legs crossed on his bed. "Come in."

Sonny walked inside the room, looking around. He'd been in the room dozens of times before, but everything still seemed so fresh and new. He never thought that he would use the room that Damian was staying in, never thought that he would be blessed with that much happiness in his life, but he was wrong. "Hey…"

"Dad, hi…"

"Sorry I wasn't here when you got home, I had to take care of something."

"Don't worry about it. I know that you're busy. Is everything all right? I'm allowed to ask that, right? Make sure that you're not in trouble without getting into the painful details?" He knew the rules, don't ask about anything in specific, make only the most generic of statements. No muss, no fuss.

"Everything's fine, I just… I wanted to be here when you got home. I didn't know that having you be gone for days at a time would be so hard on me."

"You miss me?"

"Of course I miss you," Sonny walked over and sat on the bed. "I'm your father, Damian, I care about you and I want to make sure that, when you need me, I'm here for you."

"You are here for me when I need you, dad, but I don't need you all the time… besides, it isn't like you don't check up on me at least once during my shift…"

"I'm paying for your education, I think I deserve to see if my money is going to waste…"

"Do you think that you have a chance at wasting your money on me?" Damian wasn't sure how to feel about Sonny's words.

"Of course not, I want you to succeed at this, and I think you will…"

"Then have some faith in me, dad, please…"

"I do have faith in you."

"I mean… stop having everyone check up on me so often. You, Carly, Grandpa, Aunt Courtney, Uncle Jason… Bobbie works at the hospital, she should check up on me… but the rest of you… I just feel like you're watching over me, and it makes me nervous."

"You're saying you don't want me to care…"

"No, I want you to care, I just want you give me some space. I want to know that you trust me enough to let me do this on my own, pass or fail, good or bad… I need to know…"

Sonny looked away. A part of him felt like his son was pushing him away, but another part of him could understand where Damian was coming from. It wasn't so much that Sonny was 'watching over' him, at least not in Sonny's eyes… he just wanted to make sure that everything was going well. Was that so hard? Still, Sonny could only wonder what it felt like, having an overbearing father. Maybe too overbearing. "All right, you win… but if you need me…"

"You'll know," Damian nodded. "Thanks, dad, this means a lot to me." Maxie was right, all it took was simple talking. Nothing more, nothing less.


	8. The Little Princess

Outside Kelly's-

Brook Lynn Ashton was not a happy person. Oh, certainly there were times when she felt like she was happy. When she first arrived in Port Charles, for a brief second, there was that feeling of euphoric glee that overcame her when she saw her father for what seemed to be the first time in ages. Ned hadn't changed much, but she had. Even though he still swore that she was 'his little princess,' it wasn't true. In that moment it didn't matter. Brook was just happy to be with her dad again, whatever Ned wanted to call her was good enough for Brook. And then something else happened. She heard her grandmother's voice, and the illusion was shattered as she was forced to endure Tracy's snake-like personality. Her grandmother would pretend to accept Lois and Brook for what they were, but Brook knew that, deep down, she wasn't. After all, Tracy never accepted anything that Dillon did, and Dillon came out of Tracy, developed inside of her womb. It was a hard thing to envision, that was certain, but it was true. Dillon was her uncle, and her god brother, oddly enough. They had a very… strange family life. That was putting it lightly.

Brook looked inside the diner, one of the few places that she knew would be free of the evil Quartermaine taint. None of them, sans Dillon and her father, would ever think of going inside the place, especially her satanic grandmother. But, what Brook was looking for wasn't an escape from her family, well, it was, but that wasn't all of it. Brook was also looking for something, or someone, to talk to. Nobody was inside, though. She had been at the school for a few weeks, and even made a few friends, but she hung around with Dillon and Georgie most. She tried to be involved with the music class at the school, but none of them had her love for music. They were all in it for the possibility of fame and fortune. Even the tuba player. How many famous tuba players were there in the world? How many of them were still alive? Brook couldn't think of anyone. It didn't matter, they weren't like her. She was the daughter of a musician, and a woman who had once owned a very established record company. Music was a calling to her, not a way to get money. She had enough money. They just couldn't understand that. Music was supposed to be about the love, nothing more, nothing less.

Maybe that was why she was so attracted to him, why she couldn't deny the connection that they made. Damian was something else. He was more like her than she had ever thought possible. A doctor who could play the piano like he was born and bred to do it, but who didn't want to use that power to gain accolade. Damian played the piano for himself, for the people that he cared about, not for some money. That was what she wanted. Why couldn't he be younger? Why couldn't he be at school with her? Why couldn't he be inside Kelly's when she needed to talk to someone? When she wanted to talk to him?

Sighing, Brook gave one last look inside to see if maybe she was missing something, or someone. He sometimes stuck around to help Mike out. A doctor, a piano player, and the kid who, from time to time, would give out food or wash dishes in the back. For free, no less. But when someone was a Corinthos why would they even need money? Sonny gave Damian more than he could ever hope for. Brook could see why Lois defended Sonny as frequently as she did. Lois had told Brook stories of her best friend, about the boy that he was, about the man that he became. Other people couldn't see it, but Brook could. She respected Sonny, maybe not his motives, but his drive. He came up from nothing only to get everything. How could a person not respect that? Seeing that she was not missing anyone, that there really was not a single person inside of Kelly's who she wanted to talk with, Brook sat at one of the tables outside and played with the flower that was on the table. It must have been hard to get flowers in the middle of January. It wasn't very cold, she'd dealt with colder winters. Besides, as fired up as she was with anger it was highly possible that any cold that could have attempted to get the better of her would just evaporate when it made contact.

Ned had gotten home to the Quartermaine mansion to find that, once again, the place was a wreck. Lois, Tracy and Edward were still screaming at each other, arguing about the same thing that they were arguing about when he was away at the office. It was only during a lull when Tracy needed to take a breather, a rare lull at that, in which he had enough time to drag the information out of his former wife that Brook had stormed off in the middle of their argument. But before Lois could go into further detail, assuming she had more detail to give, Tracy caught her twentieth wind and the shouting match began anew.

He sometimes wondered if Lois was making the right choice. It wasn't that he didn't want Brook, or Lois for that matter, to stay away from his family, but he wasn't sure that she was ready to stay in Port Charles, with his family. Ned had been with them for years and he wasn't sure he was ready to actually be with them. He loved having his daughter around more than he could ever hope to describe, but being a father meant putting the happiness of the child ahead of the happiness of the parent. And Ned wasn't so sure that Brook was happy. In fact, he was almost assured of the fact that she wasn't. Ned, like most parents, kept tabs on her daughter and how she was doing in school now that he was in a position to do so. Brook passed her classes, but she remained unfocused, and her social life wasn't exactly the best. He tried to talk to his brother about it, but speaking to Dillon about family matters was slowly getting more difficult. Ned secretly wondered if Jason was doing something to corrupt his little brother, keep Dillon away from the people who loved him… like he'd done with himself all those years ago. Dillon assured Ned that he was looking out for Brook, but that didn't fill Ned with the best feelings.

Finally, Ned walked to one of the most logical places that Brook could have been. There weren't many other places for a teenager to turn to aside from the park, where he had looked at first, and Kelly's, which was his next destination. If necessary, however, Ned would have searched every inch of Port Charles to find his daughter. He loved her too much to let her go again without at least saying that he loved her. Lucky for Ned, she was right there. He walked up to her, "A girl as pretty as you shouldn't even bother looking so sad, Brook. It's very unladylike…"

Brook gave a sarcastic smile as she looked up, "I haven't been ladylike ever since mom dressed me up in that costume for Halloween when I was like four, the pink princess, I even had one of those huge hats."

"You loved that hat."

"Wait… you were there?"

Ned shook his head, "Not for the trick-or-treat part, no. But I couldn't miss the chance of seeing my little princess dressed up like the princess that she was. I came later that night, I couldn't get away from the office in time, but you swore that you were never going to take that costume off as long as you lived, and your mother wasn't in the mood to fight with you that night. I came to your place and watched you sleep for a little while. I even sang a lullaby to you…"

Brook's sarcastic smile turned into a genuine one. "I think… I think I remember that."

"Now you're just humoring me."

"No, I'm not. I really think I remember hearing you sing to me that night. I thought I was dreaming about having you there, because I wanted you to see me all dressed up, but, I guess it wasn't a dream." She reached over and touched his hand, "Thanks for seeing me all pretty, dad."

"The pleasure was all mine," Ned sat down next to his daughter, never letting go of her hand. It was moments like that which made him realize just how precious his time with Brook was, and how he had some inward resentment towards Lois for taking her from him before he had a chance to really know her. She made the decision that she thought was best under the circumstances, but why didn't she give him a chance to help her make that decision? "So, are you going to come home with me?"

"Why? So I can listen to your mother insult my mother and me some more? Thanks, but I think I'll pass. I need a few hours of just some alone time so that I can regain my sanity. Being in that house would drive anyone insane."

"They love you Brook, even my mother…"

"I don't think Tracy is capable of love. Look at what she did to you, dad. She shipped you away to some private school so she wouldn't have to deal with you. She lugged Dillon around like he was a piece of cargo for years, never letting him stick around a place long enough to make a single friend that he could stay friends with, and then, when she was tired of him, she dropped him off here with the Quartermaine's because she didn't want to deal with him anymore…"

"Don't speak about your grandmother like that, Brook. You know better…"

"Why does everyone pretend like I should respect that woman? Nobody should. She's a horrible person and she doesn't deserve anything more than the hatred that most of the town gives her."

"Brook!" Tracy was a lot of things, and Ned didn't always agree with his mother, but he always loved her, because she was his mother. Yes, he had resentment towards Tracy for treating both him and Dillon the way that she did, but that was all in the past, Tracy was still the person responsible for bringing them both into the world, Ned couldn't just overlook that.

"You know, maybe if Great-Grandma Lila was still alive things would be better… everyone talks about how she was this saintly woman who could make sense out of all the chaos that went on around her…"

"She was…"

"I wish I got a chance to really know her."

Ned lowered his eyes, "So do I. I wish I could have one more moment with my grandmother. Just one more time to tell her that I loved her, to feel her touch my cheek with her hand, to know that she would always love me in the way that the other members of the family couldn't. I don't think I could have had my career as Eddie Maine if I didn't know that, deep down, a member of my family believed in me and my choice. Lila was that person."

"I'm sorry that I can't have a better relationship with your mother, dad, but I won't apologize for treating her the way that I do. I'd feel sorry for being so mean to her if she was someone that I didn't feel such anger towards. I just wish that she would tone it down, keep her mouth shut or something."

"Many people have wished that as well, Princess. It doesn't work out that way."

"Maybe we should just move out," Brook suggested, looking at him with hopeful eyes. "You know? You, Mom, me. We can get a place here in Port Charles so that you can keep on working. You have enough money. I can still go to school here, still hang out with Dillon and Georgie… we won't have to worry about living under the iron rule of Tracy Quartermaine…"

"Honey," Ned gripped her hand tighter. "It's a great idea, and, if things were different, if your mother and I… if we cared about each other in that way, I would be happy to do it, but we can't live together, it just wouldn't work out."

"You live together now."

"But it's different. The mansion is a much bigger place than any place that I could afford to buy here in Port Charles. Even if we got different rooms we would always run into each other. We love you, Brook, and we might still love one another, but that love isn't enough to bring us back together. It hurt you once when we split up, and you were barely old enough to remember it. What would happen if we did not now? Wouldn't it hurt more?"

Brook felt the welling of tears store in her eyes. She got up, "Not as much as this hurt," trying to avoid looking at her father so he wouldn't see the pain in her eyes, Brook walked away, leaving Ned there. He wanted to follow her, but he decided against it, knowing that it would probably do more harm than good.

Brook walked with a quickened pace until she was far enough away from her father's earshot. She had checked to see if he was following her, and he wasn't. She was glad, she might end up doing something that she would regret. Anger aside, Ned was still her dad, she still loved him. Finally breaking into tears at the realization of her destroyed dream, Brook picked up the phone and dialed one of the stored numbers.

Corinthos Household-

He continued to study for the exam, his highlighter out and running across the book whenever he found something that was worth remembering. It happened quite frequently. If he had a photogenic memory things would be fine. He wouldn't have to spend as much time studying as he did. But Damian wasn't blessed with such a boon, instead, he had to do things the old fashioned way.

In the middle of his studying session he heard the phone go off. Unlike other people, Damian didn't have individual ring tones, thinking that they were stupid. The names that showed up on the screen telling him who was calling was more than enough. Sighing, he muttered to himself, "I'm never going to finish studying… am I?" There wasn't going to be an answer, and the phone continued to ring. He reached over and looked. It was Brook, "Hello?"

"Damian?" Brook wiped away some of the tears that were rolling down her cheeks.

"Brook… what's wrong?" Brook usually had a very strong, solid tone of voice. It wasn't that tone of voice that she spoke in at that moment. She seemed hurt. Brook was his friend, even if she thought that she loved him, he wanted to help her.

"I… I shouldn't have called…"

"Brook… where are you? I'll go see you. Are you at the mansion?"

"No, I'm by Kelly's, I'll wait for you at the docks… if you want to come."

"I'll be there in a few minutes. Just don't leave, all right?" Damian hung up the phone and put his shoes back on. His study session would be called to an early end, but Brook needed him, that was more important.


	9. Want To Trust

Journeylove- Don't worry about not reviewing, school is more important to some people. I'm not one of them, although I make sure I get my crap done before I do this… or rather, I do this knowing that I'll have enough time to get my crap done. One of the two. I'm with you on the not liking the Sonny focus, in fact, I find it hard to even care about Sonny these days, which, obviously makes my job as a writer for this story and the context rather difficult, but I think I manage. I try and keep in mind that the Sonny that I write for my stories is the Sonny that I fell in love with back when I started watching. That said, I also like the Sonny and Jason friendship, but, at the same time I am enjoying the separation that they are going through. It's my favorite storyline on the show right now, because it has the most potential for the characters. I love Max, absolutely adore him as a character, so I try and make sure that he gets little moments in the story here and there because, well, that's just the way that I am. I'll also pass on the links to the 500 fics with Elizabeth and Sonny, that's just creepy. Thank you for the offer, though.

Story-

Scorpio Household-

Sometimes it was impossible to remember that she loved Mac with all her heart, but she knew it, deep down. Even when she tried to deny it, it would creep up to her and find some way to be etched in her soul. Mac was one of the most important people in her life, right up there with Georgie. He even ranked above Felicia, because, unlike her mother, her father was almost always there for her when she needed it. Felicia would be away, doing whatever it was that she did when she got the itch to leave everyone that she loved for her own selfish needs, and Mac would be right there, always waiting, always able to take care of her and her sister. Even Robin. Mac was just that kind of person, utterly selfless… but the minute he grew to care about a person in more than just a familial way it was all over. Mac wasn't Mac anymore, he was the overlord, who would throw rules and allegations out left and right, just so he could get his way. Maxie couldn't stand it. It was so hard on her to hate the man that she loved as her father, but there were times that she did.

Some of that hatred was misguided. Maxie was well aware of the fact that she had let herself be clouded by promises and pretty words before in her life, with Kyle. Mac knew that he was bad for her, but she continued to go against his advice and be with him until she finally saw that he was right, that Kyle really was a horrible person. The wounds that he had given her body had long since healed, but her psyche, it would never fully recover. Kyle had made a mockery of her, he had abused her, both physically and mentally. The worst part was that Maxie knew that she went along with it without any argument. She was just so happy to be 'in love' without knowing what it really felt like. Thankfully she got out when she did. Maxie didn't even want to fathom what would have happened if she had stayed with Kyle even longer. Would she have ended up dead like him? She'd overdosed on drugs before, and yet she was lucky enough to survive. Her luck would have to run out eventually, who was to say that it wouldn't have ended there?

The young woman got off of her bed, releasing a hold on the stuffed animal that she had kept since her youth, since she almost died the first time, in the hospital. The little girl with the heart condition that could have killed her if it wasn't for the horrible circumstances that brought along her second chance at life. Maxie was doing everything wrong, she realized that, she always did. Sometimes she was able to fool herself into thinking that it wasn't all that bad, that she wasn't making a mockery out of the sacrifice that was made, but she knew it wasn't true. When she overdosed, when she almost died, it showed that she didn't care about the fact that she had a heart that was a gift to her, a gift that caused her cousin to die, just so that she could have that gift. She almost carelessly threw that away, and in turn she would have thrown away the life that BJ gave up so that she could have.

Maxie walked over to her mirror, sitting on the chair in front of it and staring at herself before her eyes glanced around the edges, the place where she kept her memories. Only the pleasant ones managed to stay up there. Pictures of her with her sister and her dad as she was growing up. Some friends who had gone away to real colleges. They rarely stayed in touch, but that didn't mean that they weren't still friends. Pictures of Georgie and Dillon together, doing whatever it was that they did, Maxie couldn't really understand their antics most of the time. And then there was the single picture that they took together. Her and Damian. Around Christmas. After she had begged him to do it, managing to win the battle against the person who swore that he wasn't photogenic. He smiled a lot when she was around him, she noticed that. He was smiling in that picture. It captured a part of his essence.

It hurt Maxie a lot more than she would ever let on, the way that people treated him, the way that her father treated him. Damian wasn't his father, and no matter how many times everyone told people that, nobody wanted to believe it. They all thought that he was Sonny's child, that he had a rough life, just like Sonny, that he grew up in a broken home, just like Sonny. Everything pointed towards being 'just like Sonny,' and they would believe that he would be that type of person that would turn out just like Sonny. It didn't matter that Damian was kind and giving, that he wanted to be a doctor, that he wanted to help people so they didn't suffer like he did. No, all that mattered was that a part of him came from Sonny Corinthos. Nobody was like that with her. Nobody assumed that just because she was the daughter of Frisco and Felicia that she would end up running away once she had kids. Nobody thought that about Georgie, either. When it came to Georgie the people were all so proud of her accomplishments and her good grades and how she was going to go away to some big Ivy League school. Nobody gave that amount of praise to Maxie… she rarely got any.

She couldn't help but wonder what it would have been like if things would have been different. If they would have been in a different town, a bigger town, if their parents would have been different. If Mac wouldn't have been who he was, if Sonny wasn't who he was. Would they have been able to actually be happy? Yes, Damian was happy with Maxie, and the same could be said the other way around, she knew that, but they weren't completely happy because there was always something there. Always something that kept them away from true happiness. Their pasts.

Maxie was still enraged at her father. At the way that Mac just carelessly said that Damian could have been lying to all of them, even her. That he was Sonny's little plant, used to gain some sort of influence over the people. The nice, straight laced doctor who really had sinister plots in mind. True, Port Charles had seen more than their fair share of such people, but Maxie highly doubted that Damian would be amongst those. In fact, she was sure of it. He had bore his soul to her, shown her everything that he had to give, and she had never seen anything so beautiful. Why couldn't people see that? Why couldn't people get passed their second-guesses and just see him for who he was? He wasn't a bad person… he wasn't.

Her deep thoughts of abandonment, regret, and guardianship were cut short by the sound of her cell phone ringing. It was his tone. She smiled as she realized that he was calling her before she rushed over to her bed, the phone on the dresser right next to it. Grabbing the phone in one hand, she flipped open the cover, "I was just thinking about you…"

"Funny, I didn't sneeze."

"Huh?"

He shook his head and laughed, aware that she wouldn't be able to see him shaking his head, but it was an involuntary reaction. "Maxie, I need to tell you something."

"What is it?"

"Brook just called me…"

"Oh," her voice lowered. She didn't like Brook. They were civil with each other, but that was the end of it. Maxie knew, hell, everyone knew, that Brook had a thing for her boyfriend. Of course, Maxie couldn't blame Brook for thinking that Damian was great, because he was, but that didn't mean that she was ready to cede the title of girlfriend over to Brook. It was hers, and nothing was going to take that away. "What, I mean, why, are you meeting her?"

"She called me up, she sounded upset…"

"I'm sure she did…"

"Maxie…"

"What?" She scoffed. "Everyone knows that all they need to do in order to have you rushing in to save them is pretend like they're having a bad day, call you up, and you'll drop everything that you're doing just to swoop in for the rescue. It's called a white knight complex, Damian, and you've got one."

"I'll have my father call a blacksmith so that they can start forging me my breastplate and helmet once I finish talking with Brook. But I don't think I'll be a very good doctor wearing a suit of armor. The gauntlets don't exactly make for the best possible way to hold anything other than a sword or some other weapon, and most people run away from the weapon brandishing crowd…"

Maxie frowned, he tried to make her laugh at the worst times. "You know, you're not all that funny when I'm trying to tell you that I don't you to go and see someone."

"What's wrong with me helping my friend, Maxie? I called you because I didn't want you to stumble on us talking and I didn't want you to think that anything was going to happen."

"Or you could be calling me to make me believe that nothing is going to happen just so I won't go and look for you to make sure that nothing really is happening."

"Maxie, that isn't fair. You know that, as much as I care about Brook, I don't love her. Nobody else is going to take that place in my heart, nobody but you." He reassured her of that on a bi-daily basis, and more than once whenever he mentioned Brook. It wasn't cute, in some ways it was maddening. But Damian understood why Maxie acted the way that she did. Kyle treated her like she was nothing more than an object, he would go be with someone else and then go back to her, telling her that everything would be different and it never was. As horrible as it sounded, Damian had very little regrets over the death of Kyle.

"You know she's got a crush on you."

"It's the dimples. I can't help it, when I smile I flash my dimples. I'm my father's son, you know those dimples, you've heard the stories. Many a relationship was founded because of those dimples…"

"You're still not helping…"

"Sorry," he turned the corner, walking as quickly as he could. He could hear the waves of the ocean under the docks coming closer, smell the salty air. It reminded him a lot of Los Angeles, without the huge smog problem. "I wanted to tell you what was going on, because I love you too much to see you hurt. I promise you, Maxie, nothing is going to happen. I'm going to do what I can for Brook, maybe take her out for a bite to eat…"

"That's like a date!"

"She probably hasn't gotten anything to eat since she left the Quartermaine Mansion. Dillon said that he used to starve himself half to death because he was so upset at his family that he just forgot that his stomach was rumbling and telling him that he needed to get some food in his belly. Do you want Brook to die of malnutrition…"

"You're asking me at a bad time…"

"Maxie…" he sighed once more. The jealously, understandable though it was, also managed to be extremely petty. He hated petty jealously. "If she does die, then it's on our heads. You know I don't do well with guilt. Look, I'm almost there… I need to talk to her. Please, believe me. I've never lied to you before, I don't intend to now."

Maxie was silent as she thought about it. She did trust him. Unlike the other people in her life, she could trust Damian to do the right thing, to help people, but she could also trust him not to break her heart. "All right, I trust you. I love you…"

"I love you, too. I'll call you later." The docks but a few minutes away, he shut his phone and put it in his pocket. There was an urge to turn it off completely, but he suppressed it. Maxie wouldn't call him, she trusted him.

The girl sat on her bed thinking about what could happen. She trusted Damian, that was true, but she didn't trust Brook. Standing up, Maxie found her shoes and slipped them on before she grabbed her jacket. If it was just some ploy by that cheap tramp to get her man, she wasn't going to stand idly by and take it.

Corinthos Household-

Sonny was still battling the feelings that ran through him by the sound of Damian asking him to keep his distance from the hospital. It felt like Damian was shutting a part of his life out to Sonny. He didn't want to believe it, but the feeling wasn't very easy to shake.

Courtney Morgan walked into the penthouse, her beautiful golden hair sweeping across her shoulder. Sometimes, when she was looking for Jason, the best place to find him was next door. In a lot of ways, her husband was closer to her brother than she was. But that was a closeness that Courtney didn't even want to try and gain. Sonny and Jason did things that would always conflict with her moralistic beliefs, but now, with Damian, she could have someone that she could talk with. It was helpful.

Even though she didn't always feel comfortable around her big brother, it didn't change the fact that Sonny was her big brother, and she loved him. When she saw that he was having a hard time she wanted to help him, if she could. And, as he stood out on the terrace, she knew that he could need some help. Courtney walked the short distance between the living room and the terrace, "Sonny?"

Sonny didn't turn around, he knew the sound of his sister's voice. She was the best sibling that he could ever hope for. Everything that Ric wasn't. She even kept him grounded to his humanity in ways that his children and his wife never could. Courtney was good for him. "Jason's not here right now… I don't know where he is." Despite their close partnership, Sonny did not keep a running tab on Jason. When Jason was doing something that was important to their line of work, Sonny knew, but when Jason wanted to do something for Jason, Sonny stayed out of it. Jason was an adult, he was allowed to make choices.

"All right," Courtney nodded, standing right next to him and touching his shoulder gently. "That saves me one question, but I didn't come here just to see if my husband was here or not. You look like you could use someone to talk with… like you're worried about something."

"I'm always worried about something."

"And I'm always here to try and help you get through it." Courtney gave her best smile, "Come on, Sonny, what's the matter?"

Sonny sighed and lowered his head, "I'm worried that my son is pushing me away again…"


	10. Pariah

Journeylove- I do have an open mind. I'm more than willing to accept 'other' couples, so long as they are handled in a way that does not make a character go out of character, which is why when people write about Jason/Sonny I don't scoff, because, well… it's easy to see why they would get that. I'm just really not a big reader of other people's work. I read it when it looks like I should, but other than that, I shy away from it. Odd, since I write fanfiction, I know, but that's how I work. Yeah, the Courtney/Sonny connection has pretty much gone away, and it sucks, but that's why I'm here, to keep up the connections that people want, but the show doesn't have. They did show Max yesterday, and there was that time he got shot. I screamed out his name, I did. If they killed Max, I would have been very, very sad.

Story-

Kelly's-

The restaurant wasn't a very far walk from her place, and she knew that if Damian was doing what he said he was doing and trying to help cheer Brook up there was no way that they would already be at Kelly's. A part of herself was angry with the way that she was handling the situation. Maxie knew better. Deep down she knew that Damian would never let anything happen that would put the relationship that he had with Maxie in danger. Again, it didn't irk her because of Damian, she believed in him and trusted him more than she trusted anyone else, it was Brook. With her needy little alternative rocker attitude, the tortured artist who just wanted her parents to get back together. Damian would do something to help someone like that no matter what, it was just who he was. If Maxie believed that everything was just an act she would be fine, but she knew that Brook wanted to take Damian away from her, Dillon had even told her that his niece had taken more than a casual interest in her boyfriend. If Brook was another person, Maxie would have handled it personally, but Brook was a Quartermaine. Maxie was upset that someone had taken a liking to her man, but she wasn't suicidal. If she did anything that harmed even the smallest thread on Brook's little head, Edward would have her in jail for assault, and that wouldn't be fun.

Elizabeth continued to toil away at Kelly's. She saw a more familiar face when Maxie walked inside. Elizabeth half expected Damian to come in with her, they were usually together, but she waited a few seconds to see if maybe he was just trailing behind her and then she realized that Maxie was going stag. In a way it was a good thing. Elizabeth wasn't sure that she could handle seeing Damian, not after she had learned that his own uncle was second guessing his motives and intentions. She could tell him, but she knew that it would kill the boy. He cared about Ric a lot, and hearing something like that could really hurt him.

Maxie breathed a short sigh of relief when she saw that Elizabeth was working. She could trust Elizabeth. Everyone could trust Elizabeth. That was part of the burden of being Elizabeth, always trustworthy, always the person who people went to whenever there was a problem. Maxie smiled as she walked over to the counter, moving a few strands of her golden hair out of her face as she leaned against the counter. "Can I ask you a favor?"

"Sure," Elizabeth nodded softly, "but I can't make any guarantees that I'll be able to do what you want me to do."

"How long are you going to be working here?"

"A few more hours, I close tonight," a double shift, but that was because Penny needed to take care of something that had been troubling her family. A sick relative or something. Elizabeth wouldn't be able to keep the poor girl from such a crisis. It was immoral and unethical.

"Damian's probably going to be coming inside in a few minutes, Elizabeth… just, don't tell him that I'm here, all right?"

"It's a small place, Maxie, it's not like you'll be able to hide."

"Trust me, I'll find a way."

Elizabeth cocked an eyebrow at Maxie. "Is there a reason why you're doing this? Did you two have a fight?"

"No… I just want to make sure about something. Please, please say that you'll be able to do this."

"All right, but if this blows up in your face it won't be my fault, agreed?"

Maxie nodded, "I'll go and find a seat in the corner. Thanks, Elizabeth, this is a big help."

Corinthos Household-

Courtney couldn't believe what she was hearing. Sonny was doubting his abilities as a father, one of the few things that Sonny was so confident about. She knew that it couldn't have been Michael, whenever he said something about not wanting Sonny around it was usually because Sonny actually denied Michael something that he wanted. A childish tantrum, easily fixed with a bowl of ice cream or just a simple hug. Sonny wouldn't take much weight with those situations. No, it was because of Damian, and Courtney knew it. Her nephew and Sonny would always have a complicated relationship, but it wasn't a bad one. They just didn't see eye to eye on everything. For Sonny it was difficult, because Michael was, in essence, a clone of him, an extension of his spirit. Damian was another matter entirely.

She studied her big brother, trying to see how much it was bothering him. A moment later she realized that it was really bothering him. Sonny wasn't on the verge of tears, but his eyes were so intense. They rarely got like that. "Sonny, you need to tell me what happened so I can try and help you get through this. Both of you. I know that you two sometimes don't agree on everything, but… I've been the middleman before, I don't mind doing it again…"

"I don't want to drag you into my problems, Courtney."

"You're my brother, he's my nephew. I love you both so much. If you guys are having a problem then it's going to impact me and everyone else in the family. I don't want that. Everything was just starting to work again…"

"He wanted me to keep my distance from the hospital…"

Courtney was waiting for something else. Something bigger. But it didn't seem like it was coming. That was it? Sonny was upset because Damian wanted him to stay away from the hospital? "Sonny…"

"What?"

"Is that it?"

"What do you mean, is that it? My kid asked me to stay away from the hospital…"

"Because that's where he works, Sonny!" Courtney shook her head. "I know that you're worried about him because he's just starting, I know that you want to be there in case he needs someone to tell him that he's strong enough to do the job… but, think about it, would you want our father to be looming over you if you were starting a new job?"

"Mike would never do that, it would require that he care…"

"Sonny…"

"Sorry," Sonny shook his head. Mike and he would have a relationship that would always be strained, far more strained that the relationship that Sonny had with Damian, or so he hoped. "But my point remains."

"Just imagine it…"

"You're right, I would hate it."

"And he hates it, too. I guess we went a little overboard. There's a lot of us, and we might be a little overzealous. I'm sure if we were all there he would have asked each and every one of us to keep our distance."

"I just… I feel like this is the first step in him tossing me out of his life. He's done it before…"

"That was because he didn't know you as well as he does now. Sonny, he was hurt and he was upset. Right now he's neither of those. He just wants his space. He's not asking you to stay out of his life completely, he's just asking that you have some faith in him. And you should, because he's your son and he's smart enough to do the job that he's destined to do."

"I guess…"

"Sonny…"

Sonny looked at his little sister, "You're right, Courtney. I took it to heart when I shouldn't have. I just… I care about him so much, and I want to make up for all the time I missed."

"You will, I promise."

Sonny smiled and hugged his sister gently. Whenever Courtney said something, a part of Sonny believed that it would come true, because she was so honest and had a glow about her, like she could make the improbable probable.

The Docks-

Brook waited for Damian on the bench right by the spot where there had once been Christmas decorations. To think that it had only been that short amount of time she had arrived in Port Charles. It seemed like it was so much longer. A lot of things had happened, but maybe it was just because she was stuck at the Quartermaine mansion, where time stood still.

"Brook?"

She turned around at the sound of his voice. She would have smiled, but she wasn't in the mood. "Hey…"

"Hey," Damian walked down the small flight of stairs onto the main part of the docks before making his way to the bench and sitting beside her. "You doing okay?"

"I wouldn't have called you if I was doing okay…"

"Well, I'm here now, and I'm not going anywhere until you tell me that you're doing okay… and you tell me what's wrong."

"Why can't they love each other?"

Damian didn't need there to be any specifics. Brook had the problem that plenty of people who had divorced parents also had. They wondered why their parents couldn't get back together. He had wondered it himself, when he was younger. Not why they couldn't get back together, but why his father was never around. Although it wasn't exactly the same, Damian could relate. "It's not about loving each other, Brook, it's about expecting things from the other person that Lois and Ned don't believe that they can get from each other."

"They believed it before…"

"Yes, and look what happened. They ended up getting divorced and you went to live with your mom. It doesn't change the fact that they care about you, and they probably do care about each other, too. But when you get married you're essentially saying that you'll always provide for a person when they need to be provided for. They managed to survive drifting apart, they managed to stay friends, but if it happened a second time who can say that it would be like that again?"

Brook hadn't thought about it like that. She had seen some of the other people who had divorced parents. They only talked to each other when they needed to talk with each other, and even then the conversations weren't pretty. Her parents were able to be civil with each other, more than civil, they could go out, talk, have fun. It didn't solve her problems, though. "I hate that place…"

"The mansion?"

"Yeah…"

"What's there to hate?" Damian asked. "You've got a cook, a maid, and you've got family there all the time."

"That last part is the problem… the part I hate."

"Brook…"

"I know, I know," she said with regret in her voice. "They're my family, and I should love them… but we're so different."

"Everyone's different, Brook. Look at me and my dad. We're nearly polar opposites in every way that matters, but I love my father, and he loves me. If we can make it work…"

"Then I can make it work with Tracy?"

"Well, nobody's expecting a miracle…" he commented dryly. Getting along with Tracy Quartermaine was something that was, at best, impossible. "But you can accept that your parents are always going to care about each other, and about you. If that caring doesn't result in them getting married again, then so be it, it doesn't mean that they're bad people, or that you failed them in any way."

"Thanks," Brook said, looking down at her lap. "I needed to hear that."

"That's why I'm here… and, since you look like you could use a bite to eat, come on. Kelly's, on me."

"But…"

"I'm not taking no for an answer. You look like you're starving, at least order a salad or something. Don't go Kate Moss on me, it's highly unattractive, and I would hate to see a girl as pretty as you do something that could hurt herself in the end."

Brook turned her blue eyes over to him, staring. He thought she was pretty? She blushed, albeit only slightly. "All right, let's go…"


	11. Dinner and a Textbook

Journeylove- There's a lot wrong with the show right now, we all know it, but, what can we do? At least they brought Faith back, if only in ghost form and only for a little while. I take the victories that I can get.

Story-

Scorpio Household-

"Hello?" Georgie picked up the phone that was next to the couch in the living room, leaving her Advanced Placement Calculus book on her lap.

"Hey," Dillon, on the other end, with his trig book in hand, sat on the couch in Jason's living room. Jason had long since finished playing pool, although the stoic 'don't talk to Dillon about anything' attitude that Jason had still remained intact. It was nice to have things to depend on. "I tried calling your cell phone, but you didn't pick up."

"Sorry, I left it upstairs. I'm in the living room, I can't hear my phone." Georgie smiled, hearing her boyfriend's voice always made her smile. And she was glad that Mac had yet to bring Dillon down with Damian. Most of the time the two ended up going hand in hand, which wasn't fair to either of them. "What's up?"

"Can you do my homework for me?"

"Dillon!"

"Come on, Georgie, it's just a few pages of math. You know how much I hate math."

"I also know how good you are at math, but that you just hate it so much that you refuse to actually do something about it." It was true. Like so many others, Dillon was one of those students who was exceptionally bright in just about everything, he just lacked the focus that he needed to pull the grades that he could get.

"I fail to see how knowing any of the formulas that I've learned this year in trigonometry will help me when I go off to film school."

"Think of it this way, you could end up doing a movie about trig, and then you'll need to give your actors a little insight, and you'll have it."

"Why the hell would I do a movie about trig?"

"I don't know… because you're weird like that."

"Should I take offense to your comment, Georgie?"

"No," she replied. "You know I love it when you're weird, you're quirky and fun and you make life worth living. You certainly don't make it boring."

"Fine… I'll do my homework by myself, but, as payment, I want five minutes on the phone with you."

"All right…"

"Put the textbook away, Georgie."

"What are you talking about, I don't have a textbook out!"

"Georgie," Dillon sighed. He knew his girlfriend too well. "Put the Government book away, I know you have it on your lap, you're probably trying to finish reading the chapter as you're talking to me, just stop it, put it away. Now."

"Actually, it's the calculus book, but fine," Georgie closed the book, leaving a pencil to help her keep her place. "Listen, this is me slamming the book on the table," Georgie let the book drop, the echo being carried through the phone, "Are you happy now?"

"I could be happier…"

"I'm not doing your homework."

"Then I guess I couldn't be happier." Dillon put his own book away. He'd do the homework, eventually. "Are you all right?"

"What makes you ask that?"

"Because you sound a little tense."

"I do not!"

"Yes you do, you weren't even all happy to hear my voice. Usually you sound like my voice is the one thing that makes you happiest."

"Because it is…"

"Well, thank you for that, but you don't sound very happy right now. What's wrong, Georgie, is everything all right?"

Georgie didn't want to tell him, but she couldn't lie to him. "Everything is never all right here, Dillon, you know that as well as I do. It's my dad, he's being… well, he's being himself again. This guy came into the office today, John Durant. He's some bigwig over in New York, the district attorney there. So he came to Port Charles because he wanted to clean up the mean streets of Port Charles from the taint of Corinthos and Morgan."

"They're not that bad." Dillon had spent time with both Sonny and Jason. Much more Jason than Sonny, but time had been spent with both of them, and while they did seem incredibly intense at times, even a little scary, they weren't bad people. Sonny was actually one of the more caring individuals that Dillon had ever met. It was like Sonny was the opposite of his mother in every way, including the whole caring thing. "But now this guy has Mac all worried about what could happen to Maxie again?"

"I wish it was that simple." Everyone worried about what could happen to Maxie because of her connection to Sonny, through Damian. Georgie liked Damian and thought that he was good for her sister, but she wasn't going to blind herself to the fact that Damian's status made him dangerous. "This guy, Durant, he made it seem like Damian's been fooling all of us since day one, that he's Sonny's plant in the system, used to gain accolade and trust."

Dillon chuckled, "And what kind of idiot would fall for that."

"Mac Scorpio…"

The laughter stopped, and instead Dillon groaned. "And now he's trying to destroy Damian and Maxie's relationship again? I swear, I thought he was bad with us, but he's doing a lot more with the two of them."

"Can you blame him?"

"No, I guess not," Dillon stopped talking to think about it for a moment. "Wait, are you saying that you believe this Durant guy? Do you actually think that Damian has been lying to all of us since the beginning? That the person that we know, that we trust, is just some sort of mask?"

"I don't know what to believe anymore, Dillon." Georgie knew that it was a bad idea to talk about Damian with Dillon. Damian had been one of the only friends that Dillon had ever had, and Dillon would defend that friend with everything that he had. "I want to believe that the person that we know is the real Damian. The person that my sister fell in love with, the person that is your best friend…"

"It is him, Georgie," Dillon quickly interrupted her. Nobody was going to tell him that his best friend was some sort of two-faced weasel. "If you don't believe Damian, then believe me. I know him, I know who he is, I know what he's capable of, and he wouldn't lie about something like this."

"I hope you're right."

"I know I'm right." He wanted to change the subject to something that wasn't slenderizing, "How's Maxie taking this?"

"You know Maxie, she's upset, I don't even think she's come out of her room yet. She wants people to trust him. We all do. Dillon… do me a favor… don't talk to him about this. I don't think he knows, and I don't want him to know. It'll hurt him, I know it will."

"This will stay between the two of us," Dillon agreed. Damian had worked so hard to get where he was, something like that could break him and make him start all over. Dillon didn't want that. "You'd better get back to studying."

"Are you mad at me?"

"Of course not," mad wasn't the right word. Maybe disappointed, but certainly not mad. Georgie was entitled to her own opinion, he just didn't expect her to be so blind. "I just want you to get your work done. You're not going to get into a good school if you somehow manage to fail AP Calculus, and I won't have that guilt on my head."

Georgie smiled and laughed, "Thanks. I love you, Dillon."

"Yeah, I love you, too. Bye." Dillon quickly hung up the phone and tossed it on the table, throwing his head back and letting it hang over the back of the couch. Once again Mac had allowed himself to be polluted by other people, and once again it had done just what it shouldn't have done, it hurt his daughter. Why couldn't Mac just stop being so easily fooled? Why couldn't he stop being so fearful of everything?

Kelly's-

"I don't see why you have to pay for this," Brook said as they walked inside. Damian held the door open for her. "I mean, I'm the one who dragged you away from whatever you were doing to come and help me deal with my problems, the least I could do is…"

"Why don't you handle the tip and we'll call it even?"

Brook smiled, "Why do you do that?"

"Do what?"

"I don't know… you go out of your way to help everyone who needs your help, and then you don't expect anything from them, you just keep on helping. I don't think I've ever met a person like that before."

"Blame it on my mother," Damian replied as they sat at a table. "She taught me everything that I knew about being selfless. She didn't have much, Brook. Her reputation had been destroyed because of having me out of wedlock, and some of the people that she thought were her friends had abandoned her because of her supposed impurities, but she would still help people, even when she didn't have much to offer. Now, look at me, I've got more money than I'll ever need and I have a new life here. Why shouldn't I keep on helping people?"

"I wish I could have met her. She sounds like a really good person."

"She was." He looked away, eyes filled with sadness that reflected in his voice. "I wish you could have met her, too. I wish everyone that I've met here, everyone that I care about in Port Charles, could have met her."

Brook realized that she had messed up, "I'm sorry, Damian, I didn't mean for you to…"

He looked at her and smiled, "It isn't your fault, Brook. You were paying my mother a compliment, it was nice of you."

Maxie looked up from her menu, which had been placed in front of her face for a good five minutes. She leaned against the wall to make sure that he couldn't see the back of her head or anything else that would possibly make it obvious that she was watching him. She heard them, too. Stupid Brook, saying something like that.

Elizabeth had also heard, but, unlike Maxie, she didn't hold it against Brook. Elizabeth also wished that she could have met the woman that gave birth to Damian. Nearly everyone, sans Carly, probably did. Elizabeth's blue eyes turned to look at Maxie, trying not to look suspicious. Finally grabbing the pad of paper to take an order, she walked over, "Hey, guys. You've been here enough to know the menu by heart, so… do you know what you want?"

"A cheeseburger, fries, and a coke," Brook said. Mike made some really good burgers.

"Just a chef salad for me, thousand island," he wasn't in the mood for any meat, not after the debacle with the sandwich earlier that day. "Thanks, Elizabeth."

"No problem," she walked away to get the orders ready, another cautionary eye given towards Maxie.

Maxie didn't bother to put much weight into Elizabeth's glares. Elizabeth wouldn't understand. Nobody was after Ric. Why would anyone want to be after Ric? It wasn't like he was a catch or anything. Ric was, at best, a wildcard, not like Damian. Damian was a sure thing. She kept on watching them as they talked and laughed, ever mindful of everything that could have happened. Brook kept her distance, not touching him or anything. It was good, because Brook should have known better.


	12. Encounters at the Diner

Note: Apparently, I got Max's last name wrong. It is not, as I have stated in the story, DiMaggio. It is apparently Giambi, but, I specifically remember Alexis saying that he was Mr. DiMaggio. So, for the intent of this story, it is Max DiMaggio. I apologize for any confusing.

Journeylove- To be fair, Mac does have extremely legit reasons for not being as trusting of Damian as other people might be. Remember, he's the police commissioner, and Damian is Sonny's son, while it is true that Sonny has never been convicted of anything, Mac knows full well that Maxie was almost killed because of her connection to Damian. The same can be said for Maxie, she sees her boyfriend as one of the few people in her life that she can be comfortable with, and in comes Brook, someone who has admittedly more connections, personality wise, with Damian than she does. After a relationship like Kyle, wouldn't it make sense for Maxie to want to keep the relationship that she has with Damian?

Story-

Corinthos Household- Morning

The joy of being in college was picking the times when his classes started, for the most part. Some of them still started painfully early, especially for someone who was juggling both school and a rather excessive workload as an intern. That was the pain of doubling up, and Damian was well aware of the fact that, in undertaking the ordeal, he was setting himself up for a whole lot of work. So far he had managed to deal with it fairly well, but, sadly, it was only two weeks into the semester. There was still plenty of time for him to be driven to the brink of insanity. Such a time had yet to come, and he was altogether unaware of the fact that breakdowns were something that he may have inherited from his father. Sonny hated the fact that his mind was so easily destroyed, and he tried to keep it from the people that he loved. Jason and Carly knew, Courtney as well, and Alexis, but he didn't want his children to ever see him in such a state of sheer vulnerability. Sonny Corinthos was a man who stood strong and laughed in the face of everything that came at him, he needed to keep that appearance up, for his own good as well as the good of the family.

Helping Brook Lynn out was easier than he thought. Damian was good at helping her, he'd been the one that she turned to time and time again, and he was glad to do it. In some way, Brook was something of an unofficial member of his family. After all, Lois and Sonny were best friends, and had been for years. They knew each other better than anyone else knew them, even their respective lovers. Lois was one of the only people in Port Charles who didn't allow misconceptions about who Sonny Corinthos was as a person bother her. She knew who Sonny was, the boy he had been, scared and hurt, brought up in a horrible home, and she saw who he had become, a man who had everything that anyone could ever want, even though he had to make terrible sacrifices, including selling away a part of his soul just to get it. Lois got Sonny, she was one of the only people who did, and Damian got Brook, so it was like the relationship between Lois and Sonny had been passed on to their respective children, even if it did drive Maxie and Ned crazy. He'd called Maxie up while he walked home, completely unaware of the fact that she was still at Kelly's. His girlfriend seemed happier, and that was what he wanted.

Damian walked into the bedroom, pants on his waist, shirt laid out on his bed as he finished drying his dark hair with the towel. He could only hope that he had done enough studying to pass the test that he had in a few hours. It was supposed to be easier, he was supposed to have a lot more time to study, but he had been caught between spending time with his father and spending time with his friend, both of which depleted valuable study time. By the time he got back to the house he was so tired from the dramatic overload that he barely cracked the books open before he was out cold on the bed. The funny thing about the hospital was that, even though it was supposed to be the place where most of the drama took place, most of it happened at his house, or somewhere else. Compared to being a Corinthos, being a doctor was smooth sailing.

Backpack was slipped over his shoulders, the weight causing him to lean backwards just a bit before he found his balance again. Medical textbooks were quite heavy, and he hoped to get some last minute cramming into the day before he had his test at noon. It was only ten in the morning, still plenty of time to grab something to eat and do the necessary review. It never hurt to go through everything one more time, at least that was what he thought. Sonny agreed, just about everyone did. The young man walked out of his room into the empty house. Morgan was upstairs, more than likely, and Michael was at school, too, much to the redheaded child's chagrin. Wherever Carly and Sonny were was their business. If he needed them he knew they would come. Both of them.

Courtney waited by the elevator. She knew that her nephew had a class at noon, and she also knew that Damian, being Damian, refused to be late as much as possible. It was a good quality, one that Courtney could share sometimes. Promptness was a virtue, not a vice. But she had been waiting to see if he would get out of the house for a good half hour. Why was she waiting? Because she wanted to talk with him about Sonny's concerns. She wasn't so sure that Sonny was over it, in fact, it was quite likely that he wasn't. Sonny was, after all, his own worst enemy, and his mind would always work against him at the worst possible occasions. She just wanted Damian to understand where Sonny was coming from, and since she was the one who acted as their emissary, it fell onto her shoulders. She didn't mind doing it, she loved them both and wanted them to have a good relationship with one another. If Courtney saw Damian and Sonny distance themselves like Sonny and Mike had it would break her heart. She didn't want history to repeat itself twice.

The beautiful blonde woman turned her head to see Damian walk out of the penthouse. She smiled, trying to act like she hadn't been waiting forever. "Hey, funny meeting you here…"

"Yeah, funny meeting my aunt, who happens to live across the hall, at the elevator, which is basically the only way to get back down to the bottom level, where we can walk out into Port Charles. Who would have thought that we would meet like this?"

Courtney laughed softly, "You know what I mean. I thought you'd be doing something. You're always so busy."

"Believe me, if there was a way for me to stop being so busy, I would find a way to do it. The only way that I can free myself of this busy schedule is if I drop out of school… and that really isn't an option."

"Nobody would hold it against you if you stopped doing something if you thought it was too much for you to take on, Damian. Look at Jason, he stopped trying to become a doctor."

"My situation isn't exactly like Uncle Jason's," it was a pity about Jason, too. Damian had always figured that Jason would have made a wonderful doctor, but fate had other things planned for Jason Quartermaine, soon to be Morgan. "And I know that you guys would be all right with me dropping out and doing something else with my life…"

"Provided you didn't go into the business…" Courtney added lightly. She didn't want to see him do the same thing that her husband and her brother did. She just couldn't allow herself to get behind it again. It was their choice, but Damian had made his own choice, Courtney would hate to see him forced into something else.

"Relax, Aunt Courtney, I don't think I'll ever want to do that. You know what happened the last time… it still bothers me every day of my life."

Courtney gently reached over and touched his shoulder, "Change of subject, back to the thing we were talking about. You wanted something to do now that you're not so busy, come with me… we'll get something to eat or drink at Kelly's."

"Why?"

"I just want to spend some time with you… you're the only nephew I can actually talk with, Damian. Don't get me wrong, I love Michael, and he's extremely smart, but he's a boy, he doesn't understand things the way that you do."

"I wouldn't sell the kid too short. He's a lot better at understanding things than we want to give him credit for. Sometimes I worry that everything that dad and Uncle Jason do to try and protect Michael from finding out about their lifestyle is just for nothing, and Michael is playing along with it just to make them feel better about themselves."

"Trust me, you're not the only one. But, come on, what's there to lose? I won't force you to come with me, but if you don't, I'll be sad. You wouldn't want to make your Auntie Courtney sad, now would you?"

"If it will get you to stop referring to yourself as 'Auntie Courtney,' I'll be glad to go with you, but you're paying."

"Deal." Courtney grinned again and reached for the button. She hated having to be so subtle about everything, or maybe he was being subtle about it. She could never really tell.

Kelly's-

Elizabeth and Ric didn't talk to each other much when she returned home from the restaurant. They tried, but they would find themselves at opposite ends of the argument. The honeymoon truly was over. There was no way that they would be able to recover from something like that and return to the bliss that they once had. It wasn't something that would break the two of them up, but it was something that showed the two of them that, no matter how much they had in common, they also had plenty of things that made them different. Elizabeth still loved her husband dearly, that wouldn't change.

Bobbie Spencer walked into one of her many establishments in Port Charles. She had come a long way, much like her son in law. They both came from pasts that they weren't entirely proud of, and they tried to do what they could to make everything better for themselves and for the people that they loved. Even with that in common with Sonny, Bobbie found it impossible to be completely behind him and his endeavors, because of the danger that it put Michael and Morgan in. Even Damian was something of an unofficial grandson to Bobbie, someone that she loved with all her heart. How could she not? He was so good with her true grandsons, and he was madly in love with her niece.

She was always a busy woman, rarely ever able to devote enough time to everything that she needed to spend time on. Thus was the curse of being Bobbie Spencer, running around with so many errands to do, there was never enough time in the day, never. Bobbie walked up to the counter and waited for Elizabeth to come out, "Mike said that he needed me here for something."

"Yeah, he had to take care of something personal, but the new dishwasher that you ordered for the back just came in, and you know that only the owner and the manager can take care of things like that, and since I'm neither…"

Bobbie nodded. She understood just exactly what Elizabeth was talking about. "I'll go in the back and take care of it. At least this shouldn't take up much of my free time. I finally get some, and then it's taken away from me. That hardly seems fair."

"Welcome to the club, Bobbie," Elizabeth said coyly as she watched the woman walk into the back. Kelly's was still relatively slow, and Elizabeth was fine with that, it gave her time to think, she liked that time. However, Elizabeth's bliss was interrupted when she saw John Durant walk in.

"Ah, Miss Webber…"

Elizabeth rolled her eyes, "You know that I'm married to Ric. If you're going to call me by some title, I would prefer Mrs. Lansing, but I would much rather you call me Elizabeth, if you have to call me anything at all."

"Feisty and beautiful," Durant smiled at Elizabeth, "I can see why Ric was taken by you not once, but twice."

"Our personal life is just that, Mr. Durant, personal. None of it is your business. Now, would you please tell me what you're doing here?"

"I loved the coffee yesterday and I thought that I would try it again on my way to the office. Maybe you could give me a message to give to your husband, I'm sure I'll see him there. So long as it isn't a kiss, of course."

"I don't need a messenger to relay information between Ric and I, we communicate just fine with one another." Elizabeth reached over and grabbed the pot of coffee, filling it up to the prim and then putting a cover on it. She wanted to keep quiet about Durant's opinion on Damian, but it was so hard.

"Elizabeth, do you mind if I ask you a question…"

"You'll ask anyway, won't you? That's part of your job."

"You seem to be holding something back. Your eyes are so intense. Beautiful, alluring, but intense."

"I have nothing else to say to you other than here's your coffee, please pay for it."

"My pleasure," Durant pulled out another five dollar bill and handed it to her, "keep the change, you might need it eventually…"

"Just what's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing, yet." Durant held his coffee up to Elizabeth, saluting her. "I'll see you again…"

"Wait," Elizabeth couldn't hold it in. Not when it was so important to her. "You know, you might be able to turn plenty of people against that young man, and I don't even want to try and begin to understand why you're doing it, but you'll never be able to do it to me, Mr. Durant."

"I don't have the slightest idea as to whom you're speaking of."

"Oh, don't give me that. My husband told me about your little mission to discredit his nephew, my nephew now as well. Damian's a good kid, and he doesn't deserve to be slenderized simply because you have a bone to pick with his father."

"I've never met Sonny Corinthos in my life."

"It doesn't matter, you still make it your agenda to put people like Sonny away. That's fine, you ask me, I respect you for that, but I don't respect you using such horrible tactics against innocent people just to get what you want." Elizabeth was glad that Mike wasn't there, because he might hear, and Mike was very protective of his grandsons, it stemmed from failing his own son so long ago, he hoped to make it up to Sonny by being there for the children, it worked, for the most part.

"It seems to me like Damian Corinthos has you under the same spell that the rest of the people in this town are under. Don't worry, Elizabeth, I'll find a way to purify you from whatever hold he has."

Bobbie, who had taken care of everything, walked back into the room from the back, wiping her hands clean, "Everything's been taken care of…" She was forced to stop speaking when she saw John Durant standing there.

Durant himself was stunned, not expecting to see Bobbie, "You…"

Bobbie sneered at Durant, "What the hell are you doing here?"


	13. The Reasons Why

Journeylove- You're right about Mac, he is frequently blinded by his own perceptions and won't see anything unless it happens to be the exact thing that he wants to see. But, that's what makes Mac who he is. Yes, the trust issue shall come into play eventually, just you wait.

Story-

Elizabeth, like many people, was well aware of the fact that Barbara Jean Spencer was one of those people who knew just about everyone in Port Charles. Bobbie had been in the town since before Elizabeth could even speak, or so it would seem. But there was something odd about the way that she was acting towards John Durant. He wasn't a local of Port Charles. Still shocked by the two of them and their glances at one another, she looked over to the older woman and asked the question that she couldn't get off her mind, "You know him, Bobbie?"

Seeing that Bobbie was staying silent about their relationship, John Durant took that moment to rub salt in the wound. He was a lawyer, it was part of his job. "Bobbie and I know each other quite… intimately, Elizabeth."

"You paid for the service, there wasn't much that I could do about it otherwise," Bobbie quickly quipped back.

"You should be well aware of the fact that our relationship was more than that, Bobbie. I still remember the way that you begged me to stay with you before I went on to make a name for myself… I bet it must have stung when you realized that you could have come with me, you could have been my wife."

"Actually, I always thought that it was the best decision that I made, in hindsight. Maybe, at first, I was sad… I won't lie, there were nights when I thought about following you, but I'm not an idiot, John, and I wasn't then, either. Being with you would have been a mistake."

"Could someone please tell me what's going on here?" Elizabeth still had no idea what Bobbie and John were talking about, it was all going over her head. A part of her thought about just leaving them to their own devices, but at the same time she wanted to be there for Bobbie in case she was needed. Bobbie was one of those people who would help everyone if they needed it, it was time to start repaying the favor.

"I thought you were well aware of Bobbie's past… I thought the whole town knew that she was a lady of the night."

"I never hid my past from anyone, John. Can I say the same for you? Do you think you would have gotten nearly as far as you have if people had known that you used to love to pay for sex with whatever common whore that you could find?"

"I was young…"

"You don't really believe I think you gave up the habit, do you?" Bobbie smirked, "Face it, John, the only way you can even get any affection from a woman is if you pay them to do it. You're a cold, heartless bastard, but you also don't want to die a lonely man… but you will."

"You really don't know what you're talking about, do you Barbara Jean?"

"I know more than you've ever wanted to think I knew, John. You always believed that I was nothing more than your little lover, too blinded by childish feelings of enamor to ever get further in life… you may have more money than I do, John, you may have more power, you might even have more respect, but there's something that you don't have, that you'll never have…"

"Breasts? Menopause? The need to keep on coloring my hair so that people won't realize just how old I'm getting?"

Bobbie ignored his attempts to make her feel bad about her age, and mentally made the comment about how, of all people, John shouldn't have been saying anything about hair, since he didn't have much. He used to be so much better looking. Bobbie had always wondered what would happen if she ever saw John Durant again, she wondered if she would feel that love that she once felt for him. But she had her answer now: it was a no. "Love, John. You'll never have love from anyone, and that is more important than anything else that you could have. I'm happy where I am, these people care about me, and I care about them. They accept me for all my faults, and they help me when I need help."

"A nice speech, Bobbie, I'm sure you've practiced it many a time… but I'm not buying it."

"Why are you even here, John? Port Charles doesn't have the glitz that New York does…"

"This is true," John did miss the big city, "but New York also doesn't have Sonny Corinthos, and if I can bring him down, it won't matter where I am in the world, people will take notice."

"Better people that you have tried to bring Sonny down for what he does, or what they believe him to do," Bobbie may have known full well what Sonny did, but she wasn't going to take her grandchildren's father away from them, or help someone do it. "They've always failed."

"I'll take that as a challenge then, one that I heartily accept." John pulled out his wallet and began to finger some of the bills, "Why don't I do you a favor, Bobbie? And pay for a session or two upfront? Even with inflation it probably wouldn't be that expensive, right? You were always pretty cheap…"

Something inside of Bobbie snapped at that moment, and it reflected with the sound of her palm zooming across John's face. "Get the hell out of this place, John, this is my restaurant, and you're not welcome…"

"Nice to see you've still got some of that fire in you," John smiled, wiping the small trickle of blood that came from the slap. Bobbie's nails were quite sharp. "I always did love that fire. We'll see each other around, Bobbie. I'm sure of it."

Elizabeth watched John Durant walk out of the restaurant, then, she looked over to Bobbie, who looked like she was about to break down. Her body was shaking with so much pent up emotion. Elizabeth reached over and gently touched her shoulder, "Are you going to be all right, Bobbie?"

"That was my biggest mistake…" she whispered, mostly to herself. It was at that moment that everything hit her: John was Carly's father. Or at least that was the person that Bobbie believed to be Carly's father. If he was going to stay in Port Charles there was a chance that Carly could find John, or John could find Carly…

Courtney and Damian walked around the corner just as John was leaving. Damian saw that it was John Durant and he quickly backed behind the wall to cover himself from the old man's gaze. His breathing became a little panicked. Why was he in Port Charles? What was going on?

Courtney walked up to the door and held it open for her nephew, but she realized that he wasn't around. "Damian?" She walked back the way that they came and saw him standing there. "What's wrong?"

"I just dropped something," as far as lies went, it wasn't a very big one. Plus, he was still bound by his word to Bobbie that he wouldn't tell anyone aside from Maxie about who John truly was. "Sorry, Aunt Courtney." The young man looked to see if John had left, and he had. "Let's go inside so we can talk, like you wanted."

"Here," Elizabeth handed Bobbie a cup of tea, "it'll help you calm down."

"Thank you, Elizabeth," Bobbie smiled as she looked up at the girl, she truly was something else. Lucky had lucked out, letting go of Elizabeth like he did, and for her to fall in love with someone like Ric, it just hurt Bobbie a lot, but it was Elizabeth's life. And, as Bobbie had just been reminded, there were things in people's lives that they might end up regretting, but that happened anyway.

Elizabeth said nothing, not sure what to say, not even sure if anything that she did say would help Bobbie in that moment. Instead, her head turned to look at the door and she saw Courtney and Damian, "Hey, guys… grab a free table and I'll be with you in a second."

Damian didn't pay much attention to Elizabeth, not because he didn't care about her, because he did care about Elizabeth more than he would ever let on, but rather because he saw Bobbie, and he saw John come out of the restaurant only moments before. He wasn't a detective, but he could put two and two together.

"How's this table?" Courtney asked, picking one of them at the corner. When she got no answer, she looked over her shoulder, "Damian? Are you sure you're okay? You've been quiet ever since we started walking up to Kelly's…"

"I'm fine, Aunt Courtney, really, I just… I've got a lot on my mind, with the test and everything." Another lie. He hated telling her lies, but what choice did he have?

"I told you not to worry about the test until after we finished our meal…"

"I'm sure you'll do fine, Damian," Bobbie, cup of tea in hand, walked over to them and stood by Damian, they both shared a small, but completely understood look with one another. "But, if you don't mind, Courtney, I'd like to borrow my step-grandson for a moment, there's something in the kitchen that we can't reach, we need a nice, tall young man to do it."

"Not a problem," Courtney sat down at the table and waited.

Elizabeth watched the two of them go into the back, wondering the whole time what Bobbie was talking about. There was nothing in the back that was out of her reach. They made sure to keep it like that, so that the short people weren't hampered when it came to grabbing something that they may have needed. Shrugging off the contemplation, Elizabeth grabbed the coffee and walked over to the tables, filling up the cups of the people who were there… people who had gotten to see the show that she saw.

In the back, Bobbie and Damian waited until they were far enough away where they wouldn't be heard, but once they were, they let their panic run free. "What was he doing here?" Damian asked.

"I don't know! You didn't let him know anything about Carly, did you? You didn't even hint it?"

"No, of course not! You told me not to say anything about Carly to that man, and I didn't. You wanted me to go and see who he was and if he had become a good person…"

"He hasn't…"

"I know."

"But at least he doesn't know about Carly yet, right?" Bobbie asked, finding something freeing in being able to talk about it with someone, even though it had only happened a few moments before.

"I don't know why he's here if he doesn't know about Carly…"

"He's a federal prosecutor, Damian," Bobbie pointed out. "Your father is… well, you know who your father is, it doesn't take a genius to realize why John Durant came to Port Charles. He even said as much. He wants to take your father down."

"Does dad know that he's here yet?"

"How should I know? It's not like Sonny confides in me… ever."

"I should… I should go and find him, tell him what's going on…"

"Don't," Bobbie shook her head. "Don't get yourself involved in this any more than you already have. It's because you met John that he came, I know that much now… I don't want him to try and drag you down with your father… when you see him, tell him, but don't go out of your way to look for him. John is cold and heartless, he'll destroy any chances that you have at a medical career, just to make himself feel better."

"I'd rather have him destroy my life than my family…"

"Everything's going to be all right, Damian."

Damian nodded sadly, even though he tried to agree with what Bobbie told him, there was almost no way that he truly believed her, no way that he was just going to hold hope that nothing would happen to his family. John wouldn't let it rest until someone was buried under the law… the question was… just who would it be?

Walking back into the main area of Kelly's, he sat down across from his blood aunt and grabbed a menu, "You know what you want yet?"

"I worked here, remember? I have the whole menu memorized like the back of my hand…"

"At least you managed to get out of here," Elizabeth quipped as she walked over. She looked down at Damian, trying to keep her emotions for the child in check… she hadn't forgotten what was happening, hadn't forgotten what John Durant was trying to do to him, hadn't forgotten that he was probably oblivious to it.

"You love working here, Aunt Elizabeth." It wasn't the first time that he had called her by her newly acquired title, but it still didn't feel quite right. In time it would, but Elizabeth was his friend before she became family, it wasn't like everyone else… he never expected her to marry Ric again, even though he ended up being a part of the reason why it happened.

"Did you help Bobbie with whatever it was that she needed?" Courtney asked.

Damian looked back into the kitchen. He could see Bobbie out of the corner of his eye, sitting there, wondering just what was going to happen to her daughter, to her family, he could relate with Bobbie's problem. "I helped her as much as I could…"


	14. The Meeting

Journeylove- I can't say how the truth will impact their relationship, because that would be too much of a spoiler, but the truth is just one of the many events that will shake their foundation. John has a part to play in the story, he's essentially the central villain of the piece, and he will also have an impact on a lot of people's lives and how they act around the people that they love.

Story-

The Docks-

"What are we doing here?" Jason inquired as he and Sonny stood around, waiting for someone. Since Jason was no longer the one in charge of the empire, he had once more given control over most of the business to Sonny, acting as he had once acted: the enforcer instead of the mastermind. That was not to say that Jason was not capable at the task that he had once been asked to do after Carly had been shot because of Sonny's errors, but, truth be told, Jason was more comfortable doing what he knew how to do best instead of doing what Sonny had been doing for years.

"I wish I knew…"

Jason was alarmed by Sonny's cryptic answer. It never sat well with the man when Sonny, who tended to be one of the more coherent and capable people that he had ever met, didn't know what was going on. Yes, Sonny was prone to fits of sheer and utter randomness, and it was during those times when Jason truly worried about the wellbeing of his best friend and the rest of his family… no, their family. "What do you mean, you don't know?

"I got a message from Armando Sandoval to meet him here, at this location, at this time…"

"Since when do you start taking orders from Sandoval?"

Sonny cast a cold glare into the azure-hued eyes of his best friend and right hand man. There were times when Sonny needed Jason to be distant from everything, times when Sonny needed Jason to be overly critical, because Sonny often tried to cloud his own eyes with occurrences that were, on the whole, chipper and happy instead of dealing with the reality. Truly, being a father to a child who was old enough to actually understand the concepts, and the danger, of Sonny's life had changed Sonny, although he was not aware of if it happened to be for the better or for the worse. "I don't take orders from anyone, Jason, you know that, or at least you should…"

"I just want to know why you're doing something like this, Sonny. You know how this works, we don't meet with the competition in the open, we don't come here with just the two of us. Why didn't you bring any other people? You think that Sandoval is just going to come by himself?"

"That would be a foolish mistake, Mr. Morgan," Armando Sandoval, one of the more prominent crime lords in the Northeast, walked down the steps of the Port Charles Docks. He was a man that was somewhat older than Sonny, although, much like Corinthos, he didn't show his age all that much. True, there was the beginnings of gray hair that formed on various parts of his face, but other than that, he was as spry as a man that was Jason's age. "And, I think it is safe to assume that none of us got where we were by making foolish mistakes."

"Why are you here?" Jason asked, immediately taking up the defensive stance. His cold blue eyes looked around, trying to decide just how many guards Sandoval had brought with him. Oddly enough, Armando chose to keep the meeting small, with only three people, not counting himself. That still meant that he and Sonny were outnumbered two to one, and that was only under the assumption that Sandoval did not have more people that he was hiding in places that Jason couldn't see. He may have been a man who could defy nearly impossible odds, but, as Jason had pointed out many times in the passed, he wasn't invincible. In fact, the docks had become one of the least favorite places for him, as it was the location where he had been shot in the knee trying to protect Sonny from something that Sonny should have been prepared for. Jason didn't want to be forced to sit around docile again, he hated it before.

"Now is that any way to talk to a fellow businessman?"

"Don't try and do the small talk with us, Armando," Sonny backed Jason up. Although people around him would never say it, Armando Sandoval, powerful though he was, was not in the league that Sonny himself was in, and probably never would be. "You called us out, on our property, without much information, and we came in good faith… it would be highly unprofessional of you to do something that would betray that faith."

"I would never dream of such a thing, Sonny," Armando dug into his pocket and saw the way that Jason moved, "Stay your hand, Mr. Morgan, I seek only to offer yet another display of good faith." It was at that moment that Armando pulled out his own gun and took out the clip that held the bullets, tossing it into the sea that was nearby. He turned his head over his shoulder, "Do the same," he demanded of his men. Not a single one of them balked at the command, instead, all that could be heard was the echoing of the guns being emptied, and then the splashing sound as the clips hit the ocean surface. Armando again looked at Sonny and Jason, "Good faith mandates that you do the same does it not?"

Sonny was silent, wondering if it was all just a trick, but he didn't want to appear like he was being overly cautious, or even weak. He didn't turn to Jason, his eyes continued to stay glued on Armando and his men, but he did speak, "Do it, Jason." Sonny pulled his own gun out and repeated the action that the other men did, as did Jason. With everyone's guns, presumably, no longer of any use, Sonny felt a little safer, or maybe he was just a little more worried and fooling himself into a false sense of security, "We've done as you've asked, now, if you could…"

Armando nodded and smiled, "I am sorry that it has taken this long to meet with you after the death of Lorenzo Alcazar. When we heard of his demise, we all assumed that it was you who managed to do him in. Who else could it possibly be, after all? You have a very public feud with the man, or, rather, you did, once."

"That sick bastard is dead," Sonny commented, "that's all that matters. Unless you wanted me to send out celebratory fruit baskets or some other trinket, I don't see what the point is."

"Such hostility…"

"I just hate games."

"Very well," Armando did not wish to irk Sonny Corinthos, even if his visit was entirely of good will, there was no telling how it would end up when all was said and done. "His territory in the immediate area… it hasn't been claimed yet."

"I'm aware of that," Sonny knew that nobody had claimed Lorenzo's land as their own, and he didn't really give it much thought. "Do you want it?"

"I do," Armando said with a slight nod, "but that is not how it works out in our business, Sonny, you know that as well as I do. We do not merely claim vacant land, it belongs to the person who killed the previous owner. You killed Alcazar, therefore, the land is yours, by the rules of our business."

"You came to Port Charles to tell me about rules that I already knew?" Sonny sighed, "This really wasn't necessary…"

"I came to inquire as to why you did not decide to take the territory for yourself as soon as Alcazar took his last breath. True, Lorenzo had more power in the international community, which you do not wish to involve yourself with that much, but the seat of power he held in New England was still quite respectable."

"I didn't kill him," Sonny said, his voice low, but he couldn't deny that he was not the one who ended Lorenzo's life, although he wished beyond every possible part of his being that it was him. "The land isn't mine, because I wasn't the one who killed him."

"Interesting…"

"But the person who did… is under my protection, Armando. Do you understand me?" Sonny's voice quickly switched over to that protective nature that he held dormant inside of his small frame, especially when it came to his children. "I will not tell you who it is, but if you should ever find out, if you go after them, you'll answer to me. Stay away from that land, and there will be no trouble between the two of us, between our factions."

"If that is how you want it, Corinthos, then that is how it shall be." Armando turned around and started to walk up the stairs, "Although, I can't help but wonder who this person is that managed to do something so profound, yet stay hidden. No doubt, the rumor mill will begin to churn once word gets out that you were not the one who slaughtered Lorenzo. Are you truly prepared for that?"

"I am," Sonny replied calmly.

"Let us hope that your bravado is not simply that… good day to you, Corinthos, Mr. Morgan, let us hope that, should we meet again, it is not under such unpleasant circumstances."

Jason and Sonny waited around for a few minutes. Jason, upon being asked, did an immediate sweep of the area, both for bugs and for people who may have been standing around. Although he wasn't positive, Jason was still able to give with a certain degree of assurance the statement, "It seems clear…"

"Good," although comforted by the fact that they were not being spied on, the guilt that Sonny had on his shoulders did not diminish. In fact, it only went up. "I was hoping that nobody would ever realize that nobody claimed Alcazar's territory… I was hoping that I wouldn't have to deal with this…"

"You can still do something about it, Sonny…"

"Like what?"

"Tell him…"

Sonny let out a sarcastic laugh, "Tell my son, my innocent son, my son who hates everything about this business, that he now owns a considerable part of the operations in this part of the country? Tell him that he doesn't need to do any more school, because he can make enough money to keep himself happy for the rest of his life simply by standing around and doing nothing? I can't, Jason… he can't know."

Kelly's-

"I didn't want him to take it like that," Damian admitted.

"How did you expect him to take it, honey?" Courtney asked. "I know you haven't known your father for very long, but you should know that when it comes to things like this, Sonny doesn't exactly take it very lightly."

"He took it like I was attacking him, though, and that hurt me, Aunt Courtney. I didn't want him to know that I was feeling like I was smothered, because I knew that it would end up making him feel like I was pushing him out of my life. I blame Maxie…"

"Why do you blame Maxie?"

"Because it was her idea that I talk to dad about it. She swore that he would understand. I should have realized that she was going to be wrong." He wasn't really mad at Maxie, she was doing what she thought was best for him, and because of that, he loved her. Damian just hated it when things that he wanted to go well ended up blowing up in his face. Then again, who did enjoy having things blow up in people's faces? Jokey smurf aside, of course.

It was at that moment that Elizabeth hovered by, coffee pot in hand, "I'm sure that Maxie was just looking out for your best interests, Damian. She does that, she does it because she cares about you a lot." Elizabeth was reminded of Maxie's antics the day before, in some small way she was starting to become alarmed. Yes, she knew that the two of them loved each other, but they loved each other so much that it could destroy them if something happened to ruin that love.

"I know, Aunt Elizabeth," the title was stated without any question in his mind, although, once it was said, he didn't regret it, merely took note of it. Still didn't sound 'right,' or rather, it just sounded odd now that he was calling his first friend his 'aunt.' "I just… after everything that's happened… things were finally starting to have some sense of stability… I was happy about it."

"Things aren't as torn apart as you want to think that they are, Damian," Courtney tried to assure Damian of the fact that everything was going to be okay, even though she didn't necessarily believe it herself. She'd been around Sonny and Jason too long to think that there would never be a problem.

"You know, when you say that, I almost believe you… almost." Unable to leave in higher spirits, the boy nonetheless had to take his leave, "I should get to class, after everything that happened here, a refresher on surgical procedures couldn't hurt my mind. If anything else, it'll keep me distracted." He slipped his bag over his shoulders and walked over to Courtney, "Thanks for breakfast, I know it doesn't seem like it, but you really did help me out. I'll see you later," he gently gripped her hand, dragging it with him only slightly before letting go just before his reach gave out. A casual wave was given to Elizabeth, and then he was gone.

"Aunt Elizabeth?" Courtney glanced playfully at Elizabeth. "I know that you and Ric got married again, but I didn't expect him to…"

"Yeah, but that's just the way he is…"

"Did it surprise you, the first time he called you that?"

Elizabeth nodded, "I guess I wasn't surprised, so much as touched that he really thought of me as a part of his family. I'm sure that Jason was actually the one that was surprised."

Courtney giggled, "I would have paid to see the look on Jason's face the first time that Damian ever called him Uncle Jason."

The laughter was returned, "It would have been something worth seeing." Elizabeth's mind flashed back to the look of sadness that was in the young man's eyes. She could almost always read his eyes. "In all seriousness, though…"

"You're worried about him, too?"

Elizabeth turned her glance down, "Yeah… I am."


	15. Ownership

Journeylove- There are small cliffhangers here and there, but the drama has been relatively constant and the big cliffhangers shall eventually come, oh yes. There is more drama, centered around Sonny and his lifestyle in this chapter, so look forward to that. I choose to use the problems that come with the mob instead of centering around them and placing the family aspects of Sonny on the backburner, like the show has done many times recently, thusly destroying my love of Sonny Corinthos in many ways.

Story-

Corinthos Household-

"I still don't think you made the right choice."

"Are we going to be going through this until I finally admit that you were right and I was wrong, Jason?" Sonny asked. Yes, he appreciated Jason's opinion, but there were bigger things on his mind, things that he needed to deal with that were more important. His son… his son was now, indirectly, the competition. Alcazar had some powerful allies, some who may well have been stronger than Alcazar, which meant that they were more than likely stronger than Sonny. If they came looking for Lorenzo's territory, Sonny didn't know how he was going to handle it.

"Sonny, you're worried about the kid…"

"Aren't you?"

Jason was silent for a moment, but he nodded slowly, "Yeah, I'm worried about him, too. But you should tell him, Sonny. You need to be honest with Damian, because that's all that he's ever wanted out of you. He doesn't expect much, not really. He just wants a father who will tell him when something's wrong. The last time you didn't tell him anything, you almost lost him."

"I did lose him, for a little while."

"Yeah, but you got lucky and he came back to you, after almost dying. I don't think that you'll get so lucky again." Jason realized how that sounded, and he tried to correct himself, "Look, I'm not trying to say that something is going to go wrong, I hope that it doesn't, but I'm saying you need to prepare him for this."

"This isn't his life… he wants to be a doctor. He doesn't need to worry about the things that I worry about. This would be easier if it was someone…"

"What?" Jason knew that when Sonny stopped in mid-sentence, it was either a good thing or a bad thing. "What's the matter, what are you thinking?"

"I think it just got even worse…"

"How could it get worse?"

"Elias."

"What about him?" It took a second to register who Elias was. Damian's grandfather, the man who raised him to be the young man that he had become. Sonny and Elias never really saw eye to eye, and that was expected, due to the history that they shared, but Jason didn't expect the old man to have any sort of position in their situation.

"Elias is like us, Jason," Sonny noted. "True, he was stomped out of power decades ago, but the only way you're truly out of this business is if you end up dead. Elias isn't dead, and Damian is his grandson… at the time that Damian killed Lorenzo… he didn't even have my name."

"So?"

"So, if you kill someone for me, it's still my kill, isn't it?" Sonny knew that Jason understood where he was going, but, much like Sonny, he didn't really want to think about it. It was something that just hurt too much to think about. "Damian killing Alcazar is just like Elias killing Alcazar. Damian isn't the one who now has hold of Alcazar's land… his grandfather does."

"We can't just keep quiet about this?"

Sonny shook his head, "A huge seat of power has just been usurped. Lorenzo held a lot of clout, both here in the United States, and around the world. So far nobody has done anything, but, eventually, they might. I don't know if it's going to be Armando Sandoval, or any other person who is just looking for a nice boost in power. They don't know that Damian killed Alcazar, though."

"So we're safe then. You didn't tell Armando anything, you just said that the person who killed Alcazar was under your protection. As long as nobody finds out that Damian was the one who shot Alcazar, nobody is going to think twice about coming after him or his grandfather."

"I hate this…" Sonny said, walking over to the bar and pouring himself a drink of something that he had hoped would calm his nerves. It didn't work. Out of sheer frustration for his situation, Sonny did what he was known for, and threw the drink towards the fireplace. It crashed against the wall, splattering glass and scotch, some of which hit the fire, which burned with untamed rage. "Why couldn't I have been the one to kill him? Why did it have to be my son… I didn't even think about it, Jason. I didn't even think about the fact that him doing what he did would mean what it does."

Carly came down from the bedrooms, having been up there with Leticia and Morgan. When she heard something crash against the wall, she knew that Sonny was home, and that he was upset. Usually, when he threw stuff, it was because of her, something she did. Carly had no idea if she had done anything wrong, at least recently, but she was more concerned than anything else. She asked Leticia to watch Morgan, who had been awoken by the sudden noise and was crying.

Neither Sonny nor Jason noticed her from her spot near the top of the stairs. She was actually used to it. Her best friend and her husband had a way of blocking out everyone and anyone who came into the room when they were busy thinking about something. Sometimes, it was the best time for Carly to get some insight on to what was going on with them. Although she meant well, it would usually formulate into a plan that would cause Sonny and Jason to get her ass out of the line of danger, as had happened when she went with a baseball bat to the now decimated families.

But, there were times when it was more important to act as a wife than as a woman, and Carly could see it in Sonny's eyes, there was something that was there, a burning rage that she saw only when he was at his worst. She needed to protect him. "Sonny," she said softly as she continued to walk down, "Sonny, what's wrong?"

"Nothing," Sonny said in a voice that seemed to say something more along the lines of 'nothing that you should concern yourself with.' He hoped that Carly would take the hint, but she rarely did.

Knowing that she wasn't going to get anywhere with Sonny, she turned to her best friend. "Jase?" Jason gave her the cold blank stare that he was used to. Carly knew how to work Jason, though. How to work his biggest weakness: his honesty. "You've never lied to me before, Jase. You know how much honesty means to you and I. What is it? I can see it in your face, too. You're worried about something…" that narrowed it down considerably. There were few things that worried Jason. "Oh…" she gasped as the horrible thoughts hit her mind, "it's not Michael, is it?" Michael was more than a nephew to Jason, Michael was his reason for living. People knew that, they knew that doing something to Michael would crush both Sonny and Jason, leave the entire operation in shambles.

"It's not Michael," Jason assured her.

"Then what is it?"

Jason turned his eyes towards Sonny, who could only stare at his right hand man with eyes that warned Jason to not divulge any information. Forced to pick between his two best friends, Jason made the only choice that he thought he could make at that moment, "You need to talk to Sonny about it, Carly." It wasn't a lie, as it was more Sonny's dilemma. Sonny was Damian's father, it was his right to choose who knew what was going on and who didn't. Jason would not infringe upon those rights.

"Do me a favor, all right?" Sonny asked Jason, "Check up on everyone that you can think of, see if they're making moves that we should be concerned about, and if they are, try and find a way to stop them."

"I'll see what I can do." Jason gave a cautionary glance over to Carly, one that he knew she wouldn't listen to, but he had to try anyway. Then, with nothing else for him to do, he left. If he heard anything, he would come back, but, if anything was going to happen between Sonny and Carly, it had to happen between the two of them in private. Jason was a member of the family, there was no doubt about that, but this was a matter that he did not feel comfortable with.

"All right, Sonny, Jason's gone, but that doesn't mean that you're off the hook. Don't you dare shut me out of this, Sonny. I know that something is wrong with you, I know that something is eating you up inside, and I'm your wife. You have three children that you need to think about, three children who would not be able to survive if something happened to you. Think about them for a second, would you?"

"I always think about my children, Carly," Sonny snapped back at her. "Always." He was thinking about one of them at that very moment. Damian was capable of doing anything, Sonny knew that, but he didn't want his boy doing what he was now 'supposed' to be doing. There had to be a way around it… there just had to be.

"You need to tell me what's going on, Sonny. I have a right to know."

"You don't need to know anything about this, it doesn't concern you."

Carly rolled her eyes and shook her head, "You know how you worry about Damian pushing you out of his life? You're doing the same exact thing to me that you think he's doing to you. Don't you realize what kind of person that makes you?"

"I'm doing this to protect you, to protect all of you. Don't pretend to know something that you don't understand."

"Fine," she threw her hands up, submitting the fight, Sonny won. "I just hope that this doesn't come back to bite you in the ass…"

Sonny heard her stomp up the stairs, enraged, as he thought she would be. When she was gone, Sonny looked at himself in the mirror, a small portion of it having been cracked, presumably by the impact the glass made, "So do I…"

Port Charles Police Department-

Durant had his legs up on the desk, spinning around lightly in the chair. The District Attorney's chair. It wasn't his chair, yet. But, in time, it could be. If he played his cards the way that he wanted to play them, Ric Lansing would be gone before the end of the week and everything would be just perfect for his attempts at destroying Sonny Corinthos and Jason Morgan.

Ric walked into his office after a lonely lunch. He wanted to spend it with his wife, but Elizabeth couldn't get the time off. A part of him accused Mike of running a slave labor business, but Elizabeth quickly told him that he was just being irrational. Distracted for only a moment, when he turned around to see Durant sitting in his chair, everything seemed to fade away, "What the hell are you doing?"

"Just finding a way to make a comfortable groove on the chair," Durant said as he pulled his legs down from the desk. "After all, I don't think that the current owner of this office will be around much longer."

"You don't even know what I would do to you if you tried to take away this office from me, Durant. I worked myself to the bone getting to where I am."

"No, you got lucky. That idiot Scott Baldwin ended up running away with his tail tucked between his legs and you got the spillover perks. You didn't earn this position, Lansing, it fell into your lap. Even if you did earn it, as you want to believe, I have a feeling that your big brother did something about it. He's very protective over his family…"

"Sonny would never help me do anything that would further my career…"

"Aww," Durant walked in front of Ric, standing right in front of his face, "little brother have some jealousy issues? Mama didn't love you enough?"

If it wouldn't have cost him his job, Ric would have gladly placed John Durant flat on his back with the hardest punch. While he even flashed to an imaginary image of the action taking place, he did nothing about it. "You don't have an appointment to see me, John, and, since you are not officially, under any sort of circumstances, supposed to be here, you're technically trespassing."

"Now you're just being petty."

"This coming from you?" Ric gave a soft chuckle. "What can I say? I'm a fast leaner."

"You've let so many chances to destroy your brother and everything that he stands for slip through your fingers, Lansing. If you don't think that I can make that into a case for you being taken out of this office, then you're really just too stupid to realize anything, and you shouldn't even have this office if you're that dumb. This isn't a battle that you can win."

"I'm more resourceful than you think."

"I'm sure you are… that fills me with so much terror, I'm trembling, really."

"Are you done yet?"

"Only when my name is on that desk will I be done with you, and then I'll work on your brother, and then I will be done. I just hope that the people that you care about, your wife, your nephews, don't get caught in the crossfire."

Ric heard the door shut behind him and breathed a sigh of relief. He tried not to show it, but a part of him was indeed afraid of what could happen if John Durant actually tried to do something that would take him out of the office. Ric wasn't as sympathetic to Sonny as John wanted him to believe, but, at the same time he wasn't as unsympathetic as Ric wanted John to believe. Why did John have to bump into Damian when they were in New York. On New Years Eve. Why did those two particular people have to run into each other when there were millions of other people that they could have encountered. Fate started the ball rolling, and now it was up to Ric to pick up the pieces.


	16. School Blues

Journeylove- Yes, I enjoyed throwing that wrench in the finely oiled machine, it was something that I knew I was going to do when I started the story, and it will become one of the more impacting plotlines by the end of this story, believe me the things that will happen because of that will change status quos for a lot of characters. Damian is almost assuredly going to find out about the delayed consequences of his actions, although it hasn't been written yet, so I can't say when it will happen. Durant is supposed to be an ass, and that is what makes his character so great. He's not a sympathetic villain, like GH tends to do, he's not like Lorenzo who can 'reform' or at least be seen in a somewhat positive light.

Story-

Port Charles High-

Dillon knew what hell was, he went to it nearly every single weekday of the past four years. Eventually, though, it would be over, and he could celebrate. By the time it was over, if things went the way that he wanted them to, he would be a director, doing indy films that would eventually build up his credibility until he was finally able to strike it out on his own and do a motion picture with people in it who were actually well known. If all went well, and he knew it would, the razzie's would be far away from his movie, and only the Oscars would embrace it, and maybe the Golden Globes, but they had been sullied ever since Madonna won one for her role in Evita. Nonetheless, he had to get a start somewhere.

The teenager with the unique hairstyle opened up his locker, his heart heavy with the burden of teenage angst. A horrid thing, one that he wanted to be rid of eventually. Dillon smiled as he saw the things that were in his locker: the things that he enjoyed. Pictures of himself and Georgie at various parts of their relationship. They had both grown so much during the time they spent. While they looked marginally like the same people that they were in the pictures, Dillon knew that they were both different people internally, they had both changed, they had both matured. Georgie was already more mature than she should have been, but there was a lot of things that she was still a child at when Dillon arrived. She still thought that she would never become anything more than the smart girl who people came to for tutoring and never for a date, or even just to talk. Another thing that Dillon saw was also important, but in a different way: his video camera. The present that Jason and Courtney had given him for Christmas. He'd spent hours with the device, mastering the many settings that it had, and he had made a few movies. Nothing too extravagant, and mostly they were just documentaries, because, as Dillon had sadly found out, his friends weren't exactly the best actors in the world. Competent… maybe… but hardly the stuff that he desired to have be in his first actual written and directed piece. Dillon had even taken the camera to the mansion during one of his sporadic visits, unbeknownst to the others. He hid it in an area where he knew they wouldn't look, with Alice's help, under the assumption that Alice would get a copy of whatever the end result was. What followed was… quite simply… the Quartermaine's being who they were. Proving why they put the 'fun' in dysfunction. Without even realizing it, Dillon got into the same state of mind that his family was in, and only when he went to edit it did he realize just how he sounded. Not the way that he thought he did. There were two sides to Dillon, if not more… and one of them was the side that he showed his family. That was why he needed to get out of the Quartermaine house, that was why he was so thankful for the help that his new family had given him, because they didn't expect him to be anything or anyone that he wasn't. That was why Jason had left, and why Jason had embraced Dillon, or at least did whatever it was that counted for embracing by Jason's standards, probably something akin to not throwing the boy out on the streets with nothing more than his clothes and a bottle of hairspray.

"What are you doing?" Georgie asked, sneaking up on her boyfriend before she wrapped her hands around his neck and hung over his back, giving him the slightest peck on the cheek. She knew where to find Dillon. A small school, and Dillon did stand out in the crowd. He always had, even when she didn't know that she cared about him, when she thought the person that she cared for was someone else entirely.

"Just marking away another day that I've spent in this eternal pit of hell," Dillon replied bluntly, pulling back no punches. He hated high school. If it wasn't for Georgie, if it wasn't because there was a time when it was essentially the only time that he had where he could be with his girlfriend and have something that was akin to privacy, Dillon would have taken his equivalency test the moment that he was able and he would have been far away from the school. But, what kind of boyfriend would he be if he let the poor girl that was the love of his life rot away in such a horrible oppressive prison? Not a very good one.

"I thought I got rid of that calendar…"

"Who said it was a calendar?" Dillon asked with a smirk, "I have it stored in my head… unless you managed to do something to my memory and erase it."

"I would never do something like that, even if I had the chance," Georgie pulled away from him and looked at one of the pictures. It was taken shortly before Damian arrived, before everything changed. "After all, there could be a chance that you would forget me… and that I'd lose you."

"I would never forget you."

"I'm sure Jason felt the same thing about all the people that he forgot after the accident," Georgie lowered her eyes. She didn't particularly care for Jason. Not because she didn't think that he was a nice person, but because he always looked at her with eyes that were nothing but probing, like he was trying to figure her out. He did the same thing to Maxie, but her big sister somehow managed to find a way to not let it get to her so much. Georgie had asked Maxie how to do it, and Maxie had given her only the vaguest piece of advice, telling her that she would have to figure it out by herself. It was at that moment in which Georgie swore to not help Maxie with her homework at college until Maxie gave up the goods. "But he did forget the people that he cared about, Dillon. He became a different person… in some ways better, but not in all of them. I wouldn't want you to do that… I wouldn't be able to deal with something happening to you."

"Jason's different, Georgie. He was in an accident, one that wasn't his fault." Dillon wasn't around during the fabled accident, being away with his mother journeying around Europe. Maybe that was why it was so easy for him to accept Jason for who he was, because Dillon had no memories about Jason Quartermaine, the great hope of the Quartermaine family, the boy who was going to become a doctor, just like his parents. For Dillon, Jason was, and always had been, Jason Morgan. "And you don't need to worry about something happening to me, I'm going to be fine."

Georgie nodded as she rested her body against his shoulder. She truly wished that she could believe him, but she knew that she couldn't. Dillon wasn't the same person that he was a year before, he was in a situation that was so much more dangerous than before. He was a Quartermaine, which meant that he was already a target, but now he was with Jason and Sonny, which made him even more open to something happening. Georgie knew that she was thinking about the worst possible outcomes, but she couldn't help it. Seeing him with Jason, seeing the way that Dillon looked up to Jason, because he did, it scared her.

"Hey… what's up?" Brook approached her uncle and his girlfriend. There were people who knew that Dillon was, in actuality, her uncle, and those that did wasted no time exploiting the odd fact of life. Brook just let it wash over her after awhile. After all, there was no point in getting upset over something that didn't matter. And nearly everyone around her in the school didn't matter. They were all just a bunch of mindless puppets listening to their prepackaged pop stars with no voice and no soul. Brook couldn't respect that.

"Georgie's trying to tell me that if I ever get into an accident because my drunk half brother is on a bender and it makes me forget who I am, she'll kill me." Dillon, trying to lighten the mood, found himself on the receiving end of Georgie's cautionary look. He backed away, "What, it's true."

Brook snickered, "I don't think you have to worry about that, Georgie. My dad doesn't really do much drinking. Sometimes he does, but he never had a problem with it… not like AJ did." Brook had been fully informed of that little piece of family history as well. It seemed like most of the time she spent in the mansion was basically just one big history lesson, which may have been one of the reasons why she tried to avoid the house as much as possible. That, and the fact that her family was there.

"Well," Dillon began, "how shall the trio of social outcasts spend their lunch period today? Wandering around the halls without any sort of goal? Taking a table at the cafeteria and watching as people look at us, thinking that we don't know that they're looking… or shall we just stay here and pray that the day ends soon, that way we can get away from this horrid place for a few blissful hours?"

"Must you be so overly dramatic?" Brook asked.

"This is high school, Brook, what were you expecting from me?"

Unable to argue with her uncle, because he had a completely valid point, Brook looked for something to keep them entertained. It was like that all the time. Yeah, they had people who they considered their actual friends, but, on the whole, the three of them were alone, hanging together because they needed one another to survive. Before, it was just Georgie and Dillon, and now Brook was around. Sometimes she felt like she was the third wheel, something that did not sit well with her, but she knew that Dillon and Georgie did care about her, and that was why she stuck around.

Eventually, something caught her attention. A flier, the letters in some print that managed to shine under the light of the hallway. Brook walked over and grabbed it, reading it as she made her way back to the couple. "Hey, what's this?"

Dillon grabbed the flier and looked, Georgie peering at it by his side. One word for Dillon stuck out like a sore thumb: formal. He made a low moan and attempted to pull the flier away before Georgie managed to get a good look at it, but she swiped it out of his hand before he could. Lowering his head, Dillon mumbled, "And we're off…"

Georgie smiled, huge and bright, "Brook, this is the announcement for the winter formal. I wasn't even thinking about it…"

"Which meant that the wish that I made on Christmas actually came true… at least for a little while," Dillon took a few steps back, knowing full well that nearly anything he said was not going to be heard by Georgie unless she wanted to hear it.

"Dillon…"

He turned his head up, dreading what was to come, "Yes, Georgie?"

"Aren't you going to ask me something?"

"Did we have homework in our Modern History class?" It was the only class that did not have an advanced section, thus being the only class that Dillon could take with Georgie. It was his least favorite class, and the fact that they were separated on opposite sides of the room only made it worse.

Georgie, like a woman possessed with visions of dancing around with a tuxedo clad boyfriend, strutted over. "I think you have something else to ask me. Something that involves this flier…"

Groaning, Dillon knew that he was trapped, and that it was better for him to get it over with. "Georgie, would you like to be my date for our last winter formal of our high school career?"

Georgie kissed him on the lips before she pulled away and hugged him tightly, "I would love to."

Brook could only watch the two of them and laugh, but her laughter was not entirely genuine. Indeed, there was a small part of Brook Lynn Ashton that was jealous of the two of them, and what they had. Brook also had visions of someone that she cared for dancing around with her while she was in a nice gown and he was in a beautiful suit… but the person wasn't anyone that she could hope to get, or was that really true?

Port Charles University-

Port Charles may have been a small place, but it had a very commendable university, with good programs in many fields, least of all being the medical field. Many aspiring doctors flocked to the halls of PCU looking to find a future in medicine, and there were plenty who didn't find one, plenty who ended up finding nothing more than a cold glimpse of failure at the end of their road. Damian hoped that he wasn't one of those people. He'd managed to survive his first semester, and pulled decent marks, but he noticed that there were people who he thought were going to make it who ended up giving up, and there were others who remained, despite the struggle. He respected those people, even felt like he was among their number in some small way.

One good thing about going to school in a place like Port Charles as opposed to going to school in Los Angeles was that he didn't need any means of transportation other than his two feet. Yes, on some days he would take one of the many vehicles that he had at his disposal, but, for the most part, Damian enjoyed walking to and from the campus, it gave him time to think about things, time to go over his notes in his head, or go over the classes that he had. If only all his thoughts were focused solely on academia. Life would be much easier.

Maxie appeared from behind him, knowing his class schedule almost completely, occasionally there was a small mix up, but she knew where he was at that point in time. She carried in her hands a nice cup of tea that she had gotten from Kelly's, completely unaware of the drama that had gone on inside of the restaurant only a few hours before. "I figure that the person who just took one of those big bad doctor tests should have something to calm his nerves."

Damian stopped, partly happy that he didn't have to worry about being alone, but at the same time partly upset that he couldn't have a few moments to himself. Still, if there was a distraction that he would welcome with open arms, Maxie was it. Any negative feelings that he had towards her impromptu meeting were erased from his face, "If you want to help me calm my nerves, you don't need to give me tea, a simple kiss would do."

"Just a simple one?" Maxie said coyly. Yes, she and Damian had yet to do something more than kiss… well, there was the shower, but he was so afraid and hurt that she would never have taken advantage of his state of mind. That would have made her no better than Kyle, and she was determined to be better than the man that had ruined a part of her life, taken away a lot of her innocence. "You wouldn't rather have a kiss that meant something a little more?"

"Why don't you surprise me?"

"Close your eyes."

Damian did as he was instructed, feeling her moist and warm lips press upon his, her arms wrapped around him, joined together, and any feelings that he may have had that questioned how much he cared about Maxie were erased. She made him happy, even when she did things that he didn't necessarily condone or want, he still loved her. That love wasn't going to go away.


	17. The Pain of Lies

Quartermaine Mansion, Exterior-

There were plenty of times when Lois wondered just why she had decided to come back. Yes, she was obligated to at least give her condolences for Lila's passing, but that didn't mean that she needed to stay around. It wasn't like she was particularly wanted around the mansion, Tracy and even Edward made that perfectly clear. It was only because of Monica's decree that Lois was allowed to make the mansion her home, although it didn't necessarily feel like a home.

The beautiful woman stood and looked out at the sky. Although it was winter, and although it was still cold, the sky was beautiful, a bright azure blue color that could be found only in the most perfect of places. The sky never looked that good in the old neighborhood, all the smog and other pollutants making it impossible to see anything that was even remotely beautiful. She remembered the days that she and Sonny would spend looking up at the sky and saying that they were going to go somewhere that would be a place where they could actually see the stars, see the moon, see everything that they were supposed to see. It made Lois happy to know that they had both managed to get to that place, although to say that the journey had not been full of mistakes and regrets would have been entirely false.

Even in the dead of winter, Lois still found something beautiful about the rose gardens. Perhaps it was the spirit of the wonderful woman who had once cared for them with every fiber of her being. Lois was something of a superstitious person, she truly believed that Lila was still connected to the house, like she was still protecting the people that she loved, and if there was one thing that Lila was good at, it was keeping the people that she loved safe. Even though she was elderly, even though she didn't look like she had much fight in her, Lila did indeed have a lot of spunk, spunk that would spring into action the moment it was necessary.

It was at the rose gardens that Lois felt the spirit of Lila Quartermaine at it's strongest. She took her index finger and lightly traced along the dirt where the roses would grow again, but without the touch of Lila, would they actually be that beautiful? Sighing, she turned her blue eyes up to the sky and whispered, "I wish I could have spent more time with you. I wish I could have brought Brook Lynn back to see you more. I wish you were still here, Lila. We're all so confused without you. You were our heart, our soul… you made this family an actual family."

"Lois?" Ned was watching from the door, to far away to hear Lois's words, although if he did hear them he would have been touched, and he would have agreed. Ned, being the oldest, took Lila's passing the hardest out of all her grandchildren, because he was the one who spent the most time with her. Dillon barely knew her, Jason… well, there was no telling what he was feeling, if anything, and Junior didn't even have the dignity to come around and say his final farewells. Lila would have wanted AJ to be there, but Ned was glad that he wasn't anywhere to be seen. AJ had put the family in a position that Ned was still trying to dig them out of, and it was best that AJ stayed away, so that Ned didn't have to think about killing his cousin when people were busy mourning the passing of Lila.

Hearing her ex-husband's voice, Lois summoned the strength of will to make her appear like nothing was wrong. While her back was still turned to Ned, she wiped away the formations of tears in her eyes with her very unique and large nails. Her ruse as ready as it was ever going to be, Lois turned around and smiled, "I thought you had some business meeting that you needed to take care of, Ned."

"It finished early," Ned beamed proudly with his accomplishment, "I managed to talk them into giving ELQ a chance, hopefully we'll be able to do something about the debt that we have. I know we can turn a profit again, Lois, I just need people to have a little faith in the company. A little faith in me."

"I've always had faith in you, Ned," Lois smiled, "always."

"Nice to know that someone does…"

"You'll fight for the company, Ned," Lois walked over to him and held his hand, "it's always been very important to you. You wouldn't just let it die. I know you. You're stubborn and you're loyal to your family. Sometimes a little too loyal, but who can blame you for that?"

"You did…"

Lois turned her eyes away, "I needed someone who could give me more than you could give me, Ned. I understood how important your family was, how important your company was, and I even respected you for having such strong ties to them, but… I just didn't see where my needs could fit in with your schedule. I didn't think that they could, and I think I made the right choice."

"You should have given me time to try and find a way to make it work…"

She shook her head, "If I had waited, I would have only ended up hating you. I didn't want to hate you, I never did, and I don't want to do it now. You're still important to me, I still care a lot about you, but I know that any chance that we have of being in each other's lives is as friends to each other and as parents to our daughter."

"So… there's no chance that anything else could happen?"

Lois laughed, "There's always a chance, Ned, always, but I'm not going to say that it's a very strong chance. You've got so much on your plate, and your mother can't stand me. Yesterday she made me feel like I was the least welcome being on the face of the universe…"

"Have you ever thought that my mother is just upset at the way that you left me and took my daughter away from me?"

"I had thought about it, yes, but then I realized that thinking that would also mean thinking that Tracy Quartermaine actually cared about someone other than herself for a few seconds out of her pitiful existence, and I quickly realized that it would never happen."

"My mother loves me, Lois. She loves me, and she loves Dillon. She loved Grandmother. You saw the way that she was when she heard the news, you saw how hurt she was."

"And that was pain that I would have never wished on anyone, even her," Lois did remember. It was the first time that she ever saw Tracy Quartermaine openly weep. A part of Lois wanted to go over and offer some comfort, but she knew that Tracy would never take it, and it could only make her go off. "But now, Tracy is back to being the person that she's always been."

"I don't think she is," Ned replied. "I can see it in her, Lois. A part of her is gone because of Grandmother's passing. She puts up this wall that nobody can chip through, not even me or my brother. But it's up there because she's nursing a hurt that is never going to go away."

"I guess even cold hearted monsters like Tracy can actually feel pain."

"I feel it, too…"

"Of course you feel it," Lois couldn't believe that Ned would assume that he was like his mother. "Just because you come from your mother doesn't mean that you're anything like her. You're not, not really. You and your brother have managed to somehow find a way to be as different from Tracy as you possibly could, for the better, I might add. If you had been anything like Tracy, even as cute as you are, I would have never even married you, and then we'd never have Brook."

"She wants us back together, you know."

Lois nodded, "Every child wants their parents to get back together if they're not, that's just the way that their minds work. I told Brook a hundred times, and I'm going to keep on telling her that there's nothing wrong with feeling something like that, for wanting something like that, but she can't keep on holding out blind hope that it's going to happen, because odds are that it won't."

"And you're okay with that? Just crushing her dreams like they don't matter to her?"

"My job as a parent is to make sure that my daughter doesn't give in to things that she's never going to get. I nurture everything that I can, Ned. If she wanted to be the president of the United States, I would do everything I could to help her reach that dream, because those are the kind of dreams that people should have."

"I have a call to make and I have to make it soon because if I don't make the call then the offices will close, time zones and all that."

"Don't let me stop you."

"I'll see you later, Lois," Ned replied as he walked back inside the house, looking over his shoulder at Lois, who had turned around again, the drapes blowing her visage in and out of sight. He lied about making a call. He wanted to tell her that he missed her, and that he knew that she missed him, but, apparently, it didn't matter. Nothing was going to put the two of them back together. "I'm sorry, Brook, I tried…"

Park-

"So Durant just came to Port Charles, like that?"

"Yeah," Damian nodded, wishing that it wasn't true, but he had seen the man with his own two eyes, heard the hateful things that Durant spouted off without any regard for the feelings of the people who he was insulting. Such a horrible man. In a way, Carly was like that, at least at first, but Damian sincerely doubted that Durant would ever change, and Carly had.

"I didn't know that he was that intent on destroying Sonny…" Maxie also knew that Durant had another mission on his mind: destroying Damian's reputation. She just didn't know why Durant had come, and even now it wasn't making all that much sense. "But he doesn't know… about Carly, right?"

"I don't think so," Damian sat down on the cold bench, holding Maxie's hand. "I hope not. I don't want Carly or my brothers to be involved with that man."

"And it wouldn't help that he's also your step-grandfather."

"And dad's father-in-law…"

"I'm sure Bobbie regrets even sending the two of us to go and see if we could find him in New York on New Years Eve. I know I do."

"I do, too," Damian gripped her hand tighter. "But Bobbie can trust us not to say anything about him and Carly, right?"

"Of course she can. I don't like Carly, you know that, I won't even pretend to care about her, but I care about your brothers, Damian. They're important to me, and I wouldn't want to see them get hurt."

"Trust is so important to my family, Maxie," he let go of her hand, only slightly. "My father… his biggest issue is being able to trust people, or not being able to trust them. He's left people on the curb just because they did something that he thought broke their trust. Look at his relationship with his father. They're barely able to get through a conversation with each other that doesn't involve me or my brothers without coming to blows. And then there's Uncle Ric…"

"Trust is important to everyone, Damian. Everyone wants to know that they can trust the people that they love."

"I know I can trust you," he said as he gently put a free hand on her cheek. "I can look into your eyes and I can know that whatever you're going to tell me is the truth."

"I feel the same way about you." But she knew that it wasn't true, Damian couldn't look into her eyes and know that she was going to tell him the truth, because she had already lied to him before. She had followed him, broken the trust that he placed in her… but she did it for good reasons. If he would have been with Georgie, for example, she never would have gotten so worried. It wasn't because Georgie was her sister, either, it was because Georgie and Damian didn't have anything in common. Brook and Damian did. They had music, their parents were best friends… it was like everything that Maxie wanted to have Damian like about her just happened to be the things that Damian probably liked about Brook.

"You know how important you are to me, don't you?"

"Of course I know," she couldn't take it anymore, the guilt that he was pouring onto her. "Damian…" she whispered his name so softly that there was probably no way that he would hear it.

"Lies hurt so many people, Maxie. Lies and betrayal. I've had to deal with that before, with my family, both from my father and from my grandfather. I'm just glad that I have someone like you in my life, someone that I know won't do something like that to me. It would kill me inside."

Maxie kissed him on the lips softly, mostly just to get him to stop talking, because each word was like a dagger to her heart. She didn't think that what she did was so bad, but the way that he was talking to her made it seem like he could take it in another way, a way that was much less pleasant, and she couldn't deal with that. She wanted him to keep on loving her, even if it meant keeping the guilt inside of her for the rest of her life.


	18. Dad Being Dad

General Hospital-

"I really should leave…"

Maxie grinned as she, now dressed in her uniform, walked behind the desk of the nurses' station. "What makes you think that you need to leave?"

"The fact that, technically, at this very moment, I'm a civilian, and not an off duty intern, but, I'm still an off duty intern, and, in being an off duty intern, I can then be called on by any of the doctors here, including, but not limited to, Alan, Monica and your Uncle Tony. I get scant few days off a week, Maxie, sometimes only one, maybe two, and those days I have to spend studying my ass off to keep on getting further in this career that I foolishly allowed myself to believe that I could handle…"

"I think you can handle it just fine," she'd never seen a person nearly as dedicated to doing something that would help people, but, truth be told, she didn't really look. Before Damian came around, Maxie was a different person, a girl who didn't pay attention to most of the people around her. Not because she felt that she was better than them, at least not necessarily, just, because she hadn't really yet had her eyes opened. And then she met him, a boy who had been through so much, but didn't let it shape him into a bad person, instead, he let it shape him into a person who would do good for the world, better than she could ever hope to be. Maxie admired that, it was one of the reasons why she was attracted to him.

"You and my dad always say that," he smiled softly, "I just don't want to let either of you down, or anyone else."

"Then don't. Keep on doing what you're doing, Damian, because what you're doing is being the best doctor that you can be, and, I've looked at what you've been doing, even talked about you with my uncle, he's impressed. He hasn't said that you're the best he's ever seen, because that would mean that he would have to give up the claim himself, something that he's just not willing to do, but he has said that you have a lot of potential."

"Nice to know that I've got the faith of the man who was shot by my step-mother in open court…"

"Uncle Tony isn't going to judge you based on your relationship to Carly," Maxie noted. She didn't like Carly. She didn't like Carly for a lot of reasons, the big one being the way that she treated Damian when he first came in to Port Charles. The way that she tried to eschew him out of town before he had a chance to make any connection with anyone, and it wasn't even the connection that he had made with Maxie that she was upset about, it was the fact that Carly didn't want him around. But, there were other reasons why she didn't like Carly, the whole shooting her uncle thing was just one of the many. "If anything, the fact that you pissed her off as much as you did when you first came into town probably endeared you to him."

"I really should go…"

"I'm not keeping you here," Maxie replied. She was sad that he was going to leave, but she knew that he had things that he needed to do, a family that he wanted to get back to. Damian was hit so hard by the fact that he wasn't able to spend nearly as much time with them as he would have liked after he got the internship that every moment that he could he tried to spend it with the people that he cared about. Since he cared about so many people, however, it was really hard for him. He was being pulled in so many directions, spending time with her, spending time with Dillon, spending time with Ric and Elizabeth, and spending time with the family that he lived with… there were times when Maxie thought about letting him go, just a little, but she was afraid that, if she let go, he would never come back to her. Stupid, she realized that, but her mind always worried about losing the best thing that had happened to her in some time. "But, if you leave without a kiss, I'm going to be very upset with you."

"I would never dream of leaving my girlfriend without a kiss, that's just plain wrong." Damian leaned over the counter and gently pecked her on the lips, not wanting to make a show in front of patients, and colleagues. Although Maxie was the one on duty, they could still both have their reputations sullied by the act. "Love you, Maxie."

"I love you, too." Maxie watched as he headed towards the elevator, but also saw as he stopped, his cell phone ringing.

Damian dug into his pocket and pulled the phone out. The caller identification showed that it was someone at the house. Normally, having a phone inside the hospital was something that was frowned upon, but, for someone like Damian, someone who needed to know in case something happened to someone that he cared about, which could happen at any moment, he needed to have his phone on as much as he could. He'd turned it off once… and then his baby brother almost died. That was the only proof that he needed. Flipping the clamshell top up, Damian spoke into the phone, "Hello?"

Sonny, on the other end of the line, was silent for a moment. There were things that Damian needed to know, but there were also things that were more important. Though the decision took a moment, it was easy for Sonny to make a choice. "Where are you at?"

"I'm at the hospital right now, dad. I just walked Maxie over from the campus, she has a shift right now." He could hear the tension in Sonny's voice, which was almost always there, but it sounded somewhat different at that moment, like he was afraid or something. "Why? What's up?"

"Michael isn't home yet."

"What do you mean he isn't home yet? I thought he was going somewhere with Grandpa today…" although Sonny and Mike had a strained relationship, Sonny fully supported Mike's involvement with his children, all three of them, it was a show of good faith, and also, presumably, a test that Sonny gave his father. If Mike screwed up with his children the same way that Mike screwed up with Sonny himself, then there was no hope for Mike and Sonny to even have something that resembled an actual relationship.

"He was, but I thought he would be home by now." Sonny grumbled. Since it was Mike, Sonny didn't have anyone following them, thinking, apparently in error, that his father could handle himself and his nine year old grandson. "I tried calling the phone, but nobody is answering, and they didn't say where they were going to go."

"Grandpa said that he was going to let Michael decide. You know that boy, he doesn't make up his mind until the last minute."

"I just…"

"What? Dad… what aren't you telling me?"

There was something about the meeting that Sonny had with Armando that had unnerved him. Yes, the man said that they came in good faith, but there were plenty of times when such things were said and they were just empty words. Sonny hated it when he was played, and hated it even more when it meant that his family was in danger. "I'm just worried about my son, is that so wrong?"

"What do you want me to do?"

"Could you… could you check the hospital records for me? Make sure that someone isn't in there that fits Michael's description?"

"Dad…"

"I know how it sounds, Damian! Just do it, please. I need to know for sure that my son is safe."

Damian turned and looked at the station. He could still go back there, and, while he thought that his father was acting completely irrational, he also understood that, in Sonny's world, the things that seemed the most irrational ended up being the things that rang true. "All right, dad, just give me a second to go inside the computer and look up who has been checked in during the day."

Maxie couldn't hear Damian talking, but the fact that the conversation wasn't over in a few seconds made her wonder just who it could be. And then he started to come back towards the station, which made her wonder even more. "Damian? What's wrong?" She spoke to him, but he didn't really pay her any attention, he was more focused on the computer.

"Nobody's been checked in that fits Michael's description today, dad."

"Then where the hell is he?"

"I don't know," Damian sighed, closing the window. "Look, I'll check around town for them, stop by Kelly's, stop by Grandpa's place, the park, anywhere that Michael might be, but if you find him…"

"I'll call you."

"Thanks." Damian closed the phone and sighed, feeling the touch of Maxie's hand on his shoulder. "Sorry…"

"What's wrong?"

"Dad's freaking out because Grandpa and Michael haven't checked in with him. I don't know why he's so worried, but he is… and the fact that he is so worried is making me a little worried, too."

"I'm sure Michael's fine…"

"It's not Michael I'm worried about," Damian grabbed her hand and patted it lightly. "I mean, I am worried about Michael, because something could be wrong with him, but, at the same time, I know that the odds are higher that dad is just being dad."

"Where are you going now?"

"To look for them," Damian walked towards the elevator, "I just hope that they're okay."

Morgan Household-

Dillon walked into the house and saw that it was empty. Such things were quite frequent in his new home. It was pleasant. The Quartermaine household always had someone, someone who he probably didn't want to see at any given moment, most of the time it was his mother.

"Dillon?"

"Yeah, it's me," Dillon heard Courtney's voice and realized that he wasn't nearly as alone as he thought he was a moment before. "I thought I was all alone…"

"So did I, until I heard you come in." Courtney liked having Dillon around, it meant that there was less time suffering through choking silence. "How was school today?"

"I thought I told you not to ask that question, ever."

"Well, I haven't asked it since you started the year…"

"It's the same as it's always been, Courtney. Stupid, trite and pointless. I just want to be over with it, I want to be done with school. I want to go to college…"

"Do you really want to go that badly?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Dillon… I know you didn't want to come to Port Charles when your mother came and dropped you off here, but… can you honestly say that the things that have happened to you here weren't worth a thing? Think about all the people you met. You fell in love for the first time here, Dillon. That changes a person."

"I'm not saying that everything that happened here is bad, Courtney. I just… I don't want to be here anymore. I'm tired of being stuck in a place that doesn't feed my creativity. High school just keeps on pulling me down, and then I can't do anything about it. I can't leave…"

"Because a part of you doesn't want to…"

"Is that really it?"

"You might hate it here, but it's still become a part of you. Port Charles shaped you into the person that you are now, you can't just leave it."

"Damian did…"

"And how much of Los Angeles still stays with him? Remember when we went to look for your Christmas tree? Remember the way that he couldn't handle the cold? We weren't complaining, were we?"

Dillon chuckled, that event was one of the most amusing events of his year. "It's funny, you know? Los Angeles is where I want to head, and he came here, to Port Charles, Port Charles, which has nothing…"

"It had his father… and, in the end, it had a lot more, too. Like his best friend."

"You're just trying to make me stay here, aren't you?"

Courtney shook her head, "I'm just trying to make you see that things aren't nearly as bad as you want to believe they are. Nobody is doing anything to hold you against your will. If you want to leave, Dillon, we'll support you. All of us. Me, Jason, Damian, even Georgie, but it doesn't mean that we won't miss you."

Dillon thought about Courtney's words. Maybe there were some reasons to stay in Port Charles, but he wasn't sure if he wanted to keep himself in a place that made him feel so unhappy. "You know… Georgie's making me go to the formal, which I wouldn't have to do…"

"Oh, you're going to look so good in a tuxedo!"

Dillon rolled his brown eyes. He shouldn't have said anything. Instead, he was forced to listen to Courtney ramble just like Georgie did. What was it about women and getting to dress up? If he knew, then maybe he could make a name for himself… maybe.


	19. Unfounded

Journeylove- Two reviews for me. I feel special and loved. Yes, on the show Lois has essentially gone the way of the dodo. They didn't have any direction for her, and, coupled with Lesli Kay's real life pregnancy, apparently the powers that be and GH decided to go and get rid of her barely a few months after she had been placed on contract. In my story, however, Lois will have no such problem. While she is not front and center, Lois plays an instrumental part in at least two plot points that will unravel before the stories end, one of them has already been written, which you shall see eventually. You're right, the show is horribly boring, really, really boring.

The idea that you propose does have promise, although the idea of someone who is at least eight years older than Brook having claims on her is a little bit creepy. An interesting idea indeed, but, sadly, not necessarily one that will fit within the context of what I'm doing here, although an old enemy of Sonny's shall show up eventually, but that person certainly wouldn't have interests on Brook in a sexual way.

Story-

Kelly's-

If there was ever a place where Damian thought he could find his grandfather, it was Kelly's. Despite that, it was also the last place that he checked, because it was the most obvious. Why wouldn't his father have checked the place where Mike always was? Even if Sonny was going through one of his erratic fits, which were entirely understandable at times and at other times not so much, Sonny surely should have had enough common sense to know that the best place to look would be the restaurant. It was only after Damian had combed the other places of Port Charles where Michael could have been with his grandfather that he turned to the restaurant. The park came up empty, so did the docks, and Mike's house was locked. Although the boy wasn't nearly as worried about the situation as his father, Damian was not going to say that there wasn't cause for alarm. Things could happen, a fact that he knew all too well. They tried to keep the fact that there were people and events that would hurt Michael from the child, but that didn't mean that they didn't happen.

"Aunt Elizabeth…" he was out of breath from his marathon walk/jog through the town, but, luckily, a friendly face was there to greet him. "Has Michael been here with Grandpa today?"

Elizabeth could see that he was panting, could see that he was tired, it was clearly displayed in his eyes. She quickly poured him a glass of water and handed it over. "Mike's… Mike's been here for almost half an hour, Damian. Michael came with him, but, when I went into the back and came back out, Michael was gone."

"What do you mean, gone?" He really didn't like that word, 'gone.' It meant so much, and none of it was really very good.

Mike came out from the kitchen, hearing Damian's voice, and then hearing the way that it sounded, which Mike worried about. "Is everything all right?"

"Where's Michael?" Damian asked immediately.

"He's upstairs. He was tired after everything that we did today, I told him that he could go into the room that you still have up there and take a nap. I don't think you would mind…" Mike saw the look in his face. "Did… did something happen? Sonny? My God… is Sonny all right?" Despite the differences that they had as father and son, Mike loved Sonny with all his heart, and he would hate to see his boy dead.

Damian shook his head, finally catching his breath, an act that was helped immensely because he didn't have to worry about scouring Port Charles some more. "Dad… dad called me at the hospital, and he told me that Michael wasn't home yet, and that he tried to call you, but you didn't answer your phone. I told him that he was worrying too much, but he begged me to look for Michael. I've been looking everywhere, but… nothing."

"I'm sorry, Damian," Mike said softly, "I didn't know that it was going to be something that would make Sonny freak out so much."

"I just… I need to see him." Damian put the half-finished glass of water on the counter and made his way up the stairs. He may have had a room above Kelly's, but it was nothing more than that, a room. It was once the place where he stayed, the place that he thought he would stay at while he was in Port Charles, but it wasn't. He had a home now. A home that he enjoyed living in, a home that in some ways felt more like a home than his grandparents' house in Los Angeles, because he was more welcome there than anywhere else. His grandparents loved him, the other members of his family on the west coast merely tolerated him because he was blood.

He pulled out the key to the room, keeping it on his person at all times. There was never any telling when he would use the room again. It could happen at any time, because there could always be some thing that Sonny did that Damian just couldn't accept, that would push him away again. He didn't like to admit that it was a possibility, but it was, and that was not something that he could deny. The door opened as quietly as possible, just in case Michael was asleep, Damian didn't want to wake him up. He saw Michael's face through the soft rays of light that came from the hallway that pierced through the dark room, illuminating his childish and cherub-like face. Knowing that Michael was all right made Damian feel greatly alleviated of any stress.

Pulling away, Damian stood in the hallway and picked up the phone, pressing the button that would automatically send the signal to the house. The phone rang and Sonny picked it up on the second ring, obviously, he was still worried. "Dad, it's me… Michael's at Kelly's, in the room that I used to stay in, he's asleep right now."

"What happened?"

"I don't know, but Michael's safe. Like I said, he's asleep."

"Bring him home."

"Dad…"

"Damian, just do it. Please." Sonny didn't want either of his children to be running around Port Charles, not until he knew that everything was going to be all right. "Wake him up and tell him that I need him to be here, I need both of you to be here."

"What's wrong?"

"I'll tell you when you get here…"

"Why can't you tell me now?"

"Just listen to me, please," he hated to beg, but if that was what it was going to take in order for his kid to actually bring Michael back, then so be it. "This isn't something that I can talk about over the phone, it's something that we should discuss together."

"Fine…" Damian loathed the way that Sonny still kept things from him. From Michael it was understandable, Damian kept things from Michael all the time, and would do so for Morgan when he was old enough. It wasn't because of any malicious reason, it was because they wanted to preserve the innocence that Michael and Morgan had, innocence that could be lost within a few seconds, if it went about unprotected. "I'll be home as soon as I can, and I'll bring Michael."

"What did Sonny say?" Mike asked, having walked up the stairs, still wondering what was going on. He waited until the conversation between father and son had finished.

"He wants me and Michael back home as soon as possible. I need to wake my brother up… but first, you need to tell me what happened? Where did you go, why didn't you have your phone on?"

"Michael wanted to go see the dinosaur exhibit at a museum a few towns over. You know him, when he wants to do something he won't relent until we finally agree to do it… but they have a rule that cell phones need to be turned off, because kids could be trying to learn and everything. I turned the phone off, and we were having such a good time just talking the way back that I forgot to turn it on…"

"I see…"

"Sonny's probably upset at me."

"I think it's something a little bit worse than that, Grandpa," Damian said lightly.

"What are you talking about?"

"I don't know," he shrugged, "I just have this feeling… dad should know that there is nothing that would keep you from making sure that Michael was as safe as he could be. I know that deep down he realized it, but he kept on doing something, saying something that would make him feel like Michael was being threatened. I don't know my father that well, I openly admit that fact, but I can tell when he's worried about something, because he acts irrationally, he loses the cool demeanor that he usually has… it's like the mask that he wears cracks, and he gets scared."

"Maybe I should go with you…"

"Don't take this the wrong way, but if he is mad at you for keeping your phone off like you did, then it would probably be in your best interest to stay away from him until he cools down. I'll talk to him, tell him that you were just adhering to the rules that you had to follow while you were with Michael, and that you forgot to turn the phone off when you left the place… it's happened before, to him, probably. But… I need to get him. I'll call you when everything settles down."

"Are you okay?" Mike asked, trying to decipher what was going on inside of Damian's head. Usually he was open and honest, but there were times when even he decided to take a page out of his father's book and be a little secretive.

"I'll be a lot better once I find out what's bugging my father so much. Don't worry, I'm not upset at you or anything." And he wasn't, Mike did nothing wrong, other than make a small mistake that people made from time to time. The boy walked into the bedroom and gently nudged the boy, "Hey, buddy… you need to wake up."

Michael slowly opened his eyes, squinting as the light hit his face, a hand placed in front of his face to help with the glare, but he recognized the voice. "Damian? What are you doing here?"

"I came to come get you. Dad wants us home…"

"Why?"

"I don't know, Michael," Damian sat on the edge of the bed, trying to sound as unworried as he possibly could, an act that he had learned to perfect shortly after becoming Michael's big brother. He couldn't act like he was worried, Michael would pick up on it, he wasn't oblivious to the things that the adults around him tried to keep from him. "But the sooner we leave, the sooner we find out."

"Where's Grandpa Mike?"

"Right here, kiddo," Mike had stayed around, just in case something had happened. He poked his head through the doorway. "Thanks for spending all that time with me, I had more fun than I've had in a long time. We'll have to do it again some time."

Michael smiled, the glare finally adjusting enough to the point that he could see. "I think so, too. I had a lot of fun." Michael slipped on his shoes quickly and ran over to hug his grandfather. "Bye, Grandpa."

"Bye, Michael," Mike gave a shallow wave and gently touched Damian's shoulder, a knowing glance received between the two of them before his eldest grandson walked behind Michael and down the stairs. Mike leaned his head against the wall, "Oh, Michael," he said Sonny's real name, something that he rarely did, "what happened now?"

The Docks-

The shortest way to the Harbor View Towers from Kelly's was through the docks. Damian was walking with Michael by his side as quickly as he could. Each passing moment was just another moment in which Sonny could get more upset about the fact that they weren't there. He had hoped that the two of them would not run into anyone, but, in Port Charles, such a thing was just not possible.

She sat on the bench, looking at the sea. She had called in to work, didn't want to deal with anyone, not at that moment. But, when she heard her name being called, she smiled and turned around. Michael ran towards his grandmother and hugged her. Bobbie looked down at him, "Hi, sweetie!"

"I didn't know that you were going to be here," Michael said happily, as if he was being blessed with everything that he wanted. Rare was it when he got to see his grandparents on the same day, they were both busy, and now that Damian wasn't around as much Michael found himself no longer surrounded by people that he loved, although he knew the love was always going to be there.

"I just felt like watching the ocean for a little while," Bobbie replied. "Sometimes I like to listen to the sounds that it makes… what are you two doing?"

"We're on our way home," Damian walked down the stairs, wondering how Bobbie was holding up with everything that had happened. It just seemed like, for him, there was one more problem stacked upon another and another each time he turned around. Sometimes he wondered why he stayed in Port Charles after the first week, everything just seemed like it threatened to consume him, and at times, it almost had. "Dad wants me and Michael home as soon as possible… so we'd better…"

"Can't we stay for just a little while?" Michael asked in his begging voice, "I just want to talk with Grandma for a few minutes. I'll tell daddy what happened, I'll tell him that I made you stay with me and grandma, he won't get mad at you…"

"Honey, you know you can see me whenever you want… you just have to ask, and I'll always be there for you."

Damian shrugged, "I'm sure dad won't mind. He knows how important you are to Michael, and he won't be happy unless he spends a few moments with you…"

"Thanks," Michael looked over to his brother, who always seemed to know the right thing to do or say.

"Don't mention it, but, remember, if dad gets upset, you have to tell him that this was your idea, not mine."

"I don't want either of you to get in trouble…"

Durant walked down the few steps that kept him above the family gathering, a family that he was unknowingly a part of, "Expecting someone like him not to get in trouble is like expecting for it to rain gold, Barbara Jean… just isn't going to happen." He smiled his devilish smile as he looked at both Bobbie and Damian.


	20. Slip Up

Note: Welcome to Chapter 20, and the 100 page mark! Break out the balloons and other celebratory knickknacks. I'd like to thank the people who are still reading this for sticking around and all that good jazz.

Journeylove- Brook's love life will take a bit of center stage eventually, but not in the way that you're requesting, no mini-mobsters with the yearning desire for a siren. It should still be somewhat interesting, I hope. I'm looking forward to writing it when I can get the chance, although that isn't for a little while. Yes, I miss Lois too, she was woefully underused and then just cast aside. Truly a horrible thing to do, but GH has no shame, so they do it anyway.

Story-

"John?" Bobbie glared up at the man who was Michael's grandfather. "What are you doing here? Haven't you caused me enough pain for the day?"

"Never enough, Bobbie," Durant replied, not trying to hold back the fact that, while he and Barbara Jean had once had a very intimate relationship, any connection that they once had was long since eradicated, and now, all that remained was the animosity.

"Who are you?" Michael asked, ever curious to find out who every single person that ever came across his face was. Nobody could fault him for his childlike curiosity. "And why are you being so mean to my…"

"Michael, we need to go," Damian quickly cut in before Michael could say any more. It wasn't like Damian to cut his little brother off mid-thought, but he had reasons for doing it. John wasn't supposed to find out that Bobbie had a child, and, if Michael called her grandma then it would imply that a child had indeed been born to Bobbie. Lucas was much too young to have a child that was Michael's age, which would make that excuse impossible to believe.

"I thought you said that we could stay…"

Durant got on his knees so that he could see eye to eye with Michael, "If you know what's good for you, buddy, you might want to stay away from someone like him, he's not a very good person."

"My big brother is a good person!" Michael quickly countered, "And don't call me buddy!" Michael hated it when anyone called him 'buddy' that he didn't know or care about, and Durant managed to make it on that list.

"Big brother?" Durant glanced over to Damian, who looked incredibly worried. "Well, this is unexpected…"

"Leave us alone!" Michael yelled at Durant, resisting the urge to kick the man in the knee, or maybe just a little higher. "Go away, leave us all alone!"

"Michael!" Damian grabbed his brother's hand, "Come on, we need to go…"

"I'm sure we'll run into each other again," Durant called out to Michael, "it might take a few years, but I'm sure there will be a time when I see your face on a most wanted poster…"

Bobbie, no longer able to take John's words, especially the way that he insulted the people that she cared about, brought her hand back and slapped the unsuspecting man with all of her might, it sent him reeling, toppling backwards onto his back. Bobbie was very pleased with the results.

"You know, I could put you in jail for assaulting me…"

"And then I would get a lawyer, one that is more than capable enough to deal with you, and what would happen, John? We would go to court, and you would have to admit that you had a connection with me once upon a time, that you had an affair with a whore…"

"I'm sure you wouldn't admit that."

"I've already told you, I have nothing that I need to hide. These people in Port Charles know who I am, know what I've done in my life. I have nothing that I need to keep from them, or from anyone else that comes into contact with me. Can you say the same thing?" Bobbie may have been intimidated by John, and she was, but she wasn't going to let him bully her into doing something, just because he thought that she could. There was a time when Bobbie believed that she had no voice, but Bobbie wasn't that person anymore, she knew better, much better.

John pulled himself up to his feet, the snicker and the grin never leaving his face, even as he checked his mouth, seeing the smallest droplet of blood appear on his finger. He looked at Bobbie and knew that Bobbie had a point, he couldn't take the risk of something putting a black mark on his career, not while he was busy trying to set up his seat of power in a new place. "I suppose you have a good reason for smacking me."

"I've got plenty," Bobbie replied bluntly, "but the reason that I slapped you, the main was, was because of the way that you spoke about those two fine young men."

"Please… how blind are you? Damian Corinthos is Sonny Corinthos's son, Bobbie. That means that he is a killer in training."

"Damian is an intern at General Hospital!" Bobbie yelled, hoping to smack some sense into John and his horrible way of placing stigmas on people who didn't deserve them. He had done that ever since she met him when he was younger, when he had hair. "He is going to be a wonderful doctor, he is going to help hundreds, thousands of people…"

"You want to believe that, don't you?" John wondered. "Bobbie, I've seen people like him, I've seem them time and time again. They try and get away from the life that they were born into, but they can't, because it's a part of who they are."

"Stop it, John, just stop it…" Bobbie said softly. "You don't understand anything, you never have. You want to think that you know everything, but you don't know anything. You think that you can just say that people are going to be one way, when they're not. You should know better than anyone else that things don't always turn out the way that they looked five or ten years ago. Did you think that I would be the top nurse of General Hospital when you took me to bed, paying for my services?"

"Are you going to hold that over my head forever?"

"I just might," Bobbie realized then and there that she had something that she could use as ammunition against John. "I swear, if you don't leave them alone, I'm going to find someone who listen to my story, John, and I'm going to tell them everything that I can about you, about the person that you used to be, about how you would always come looking for me when you wanted a good time. I know how important the public image is to someone like you… and I can destroy it like that." She snapped her finger for added impact.

John walked up to her face and stared, his hot breath running down her body, "You'd like to think that things are that easy, wouldn't you? But, like so many things in life, you don't realize just how complicated they can be. You do what you feel is necessary, Bobbie, but if you open a can of worms, don't be surprised by what happens at the end."

"Just leave me alone…"

"You can't get rid of me that easily, you know. I will be back."

"I'll know by the overwhelming urge to stab my eyes out with something sharp and pointy…"

"Goodbye, Bobbie. For now." John took a step to the side and then continued on his way, still entertained by the altercation that he had with Bobbie and Damian, just two of the people that he hoped to bring down before he left town. However, John couldn't help but wonder just what had happened between Bobbie and Damian, and the other little boy. Who was he?

Bobbie sighed heavily and sat back down on the bench, sinking her head into her hands and trying to keep her emotions in check. Thankfully, Damian had managed to find a way to get Michael out of the way before things became too much for the boy to handle. Bobbie never wanted Michael to know that the man that he had just met moments before was his paternal grandfather. In fact, she never wanted Michael to meet John at all, but everything seemed to be getting more and more difficult to cover up. What was she going to do in case her plans fell apart?

Outside the Corinthos Household-

Michael had found himself almost being dragged by the hand as he and Damian made their way home. Michael didn't want to say anything, but he could see it in Damian's face, something that he didn't think that he would ever see: worry. Whoever that man was… something about him spooked Michael's elder brother.

"Come on, Michael, dad wants us inside the house…"

"No."

Damian turned and looked at the boy, "Michael, please, I'm not kidding around. We need to go inside."

"I want to know who that man is…" Michael replied. "I want to know what's going on, you don't look like you're very happy right now…"

"I'm just tired, I spent a long time looking for you, running around Port Charles because dad was worried about you." So it wasn't a lie, but it wasn't the truth. He had recovered from the fatigue that came to him after running around looking for Michael.

"You're lying!" Michael yelled, the anger not being hidden in his voice. "I thought that you would never lie to me!"

"Michael…"

"Don't," Michael shook his head, "I came back because you wanted me to, because daddy wanted me to, I'm done now…"

Jason opened the door of his penthouse to see a visibly upset Michael. Immediately, the part of Jason that would always be Michael's father took over, as he walked over and tried to touch Michael, "What's wrong, buddy?"

"Just leave me alone!" Michael didn't want to talk with anyone. Too upset to stay around people who he had foolishly believed were being honest with him, Michael opened the door and ran inside the house.

Jason turned his azure eyes onto Damian. While Jason cared about Damian, Jason loved Michael, dearly, and if Damian did anything that had hurt Michael, Jason would make sure that it never happened again. "What's wrong with Michael, Damian?"

"He's mad…"

"I can see that."

"He's mad at me because I won't tell him why I pulled him away from Bobbie when we saw her while we were on the way home…"

"Why did you? Bobbie's his grandmother…"

Damian wanted to tell Jason the truth, that he had encountered his paternal grandfather, but Jason had no clue that John Durant was Carly's father, and, while it pained the boy to keep such a secret from everyone, he had given Bobbie his word, and he would not betray that word. "Someone else was there…"

"Who?"

Sonny had been waiting for Michael and Damian to come back to the house, but when he saw his young son dash into the house and up to his room, without a single word, Sonny realized that things weren't as peachy as he wanted to believe they were. In the middle of Jason and Damian's conversation, he walked out of the house, looking for the other boy. "What's wrong with Michael?"

"That's what I want to find out," Jason replied, keeping his cold glare on Damian. "Michael's upset because Damian didn't want to let him spend time with Bobbie…"

"Bobbie? I thought he was with Mike…"

"He was," Damian said, wishing that everything would be over soon, his head was starting to throb, and he hated it when his head was in pain. "I looked for Michael like you wanted me to, dad… I found him with Grandpa, and I told Michael that we needed to get back to the house because you wanted us here… but he saw Bobbie while we were walking through the docks… and then…"

"And then what?"

"I had to take him away from Bobbie…"

"I wanted you to come back as soon as you could, I'm sure Bobbie understands." Sonny thought that his son did the right thing. After all, Bobbie did know everything that could go on in Sonny's life, and she didn't accept it, but she understood that Sonny would do anything to make sure that her grandsons never got hurt, everything that was within his power.

Jason wasn't willing to let the explanation go without more information. After all, Damian had mentioned that someone else was there. "Damian, who was at the docks when you saw Bobbie?"

"Someone else was at the docks?"

Damian rested his head against the wall, why couldn't Jason forget? Why did he have to have such a damned good memory? "It was John Durant… all right? John Durant is in Port Charles… and he's here because the two of you are here and he wants to bring the two of you down…"


	21. Time To Protect

Journeylove- Yeah, Ned's still around on the GH canvas, he isn't a contract player anymore, but he's made a few appearances here and there since he was taken off back in April. Lesli, on the other hand, hasn't been around at all, even though it has been noted that she's also been dropped to recurring.

Story-

Sonny and Jason shared knowing glances at one another. While they may not have acted like they were even a little bit afraid of what could happen it did not mean that they weren't. John Durant… a man that they both knew well, although only by reputation and not by anything else. If Sonny and Jason thought that Ric's former vendetta against the two of them was something that they struggled to make it through, then John Durant was the person who was probably going to eat them alive without even blinking. But neither of them could show weakness, even around someone that they both trusted, because in showing weakness they admitted to it, and when people in their business admitted to being weak, things happened, people sometimes died, or were at least taken out of the picture.

Instead of dwelling on what could have happened, Sonny quickly realized that he needed to get the facts, as many of them as he could get. Since Damian was the one who managed to see John Durant, he was also the most likely person to probe for information. "Son, I need you to tell me everything that he said… anything that could explain why he came to Port Charles…"

"It's… it's my fault…"

"What?" Sonny didn't know why he would blame himself. Yes, Damian did have a complex about him that made him take the blame for anything bad that happened, to save other people the grief that he swore he could handle, but that didn't mean that everything was his fault. Hardly anything ever was. "How can this be your fault?"

"Because… because he's here since he met me in New York City on New Years Eve." Without getting into detail about why he went, and the specifics about John Durant, Damian recollected the story, telling his father and his uncle for the first time just who he had seen, a secret that he had held inside of him ever since that day. "Maxie and I… we ran into John Durant, and he started attacking me, verbally attacking me, saying how I was just there to see him because I was sizing him up for the two of you. He said that he was going to do something about both of you, and what you do here in Port Charles… I thought it was just an empty threat. I didn't expect him to ever actually come here…"

"How did he even know who you were?" Sonny wondered.

"The murders on the docks back in October," Jason guessed. "Even though he wasn't involved in them, Sonny, his name, his face, his connection to you… it was all over the media, here in Port Charles, and in other places, too. Durant's the type of person who tries to keep up with every single facet of activity that he can get his hands on, that's why he's so dangerous… he doesn't slack off, he doesn't really lose his focus."

"I'm sorry…" the boy muttered softly. "I didn't think he was going to come, I didn't think that he was going to do anything to either of you… if I knew, I would have told you. Please, believe me…"

"This isn't your fault," Sonny placed a hand on Damian's shoulder, trying to sound as sympathetic as possible. In his mind, Sonny was thinking about everything that he had to contend with. Not only did he have to worry about Michael's latest tantrum, as well as Damian and Elias now 'unofficially' holding territory in upstate New York, but John Durant was in town, and John Durant was looking for him and Jason. "Nobody is blaming you. You couldn't have known that he was going to come to Port Charles, you couldn't have known that he was going to act on this threat."

"But… but what if he gets what he wants? I know you two are good at keeping everything as clean as possible… but what…"

"Just let us worry about the possibilities, all right?" Sonny grinned, "You just focus on helping people get better when they're sick, and on your studies… you have nothing to do with this, son. Nothing is going to happen to you, I promise."

"Dad…"

Sonny shook his head, "Don't worry about it, Damian. Please, I need to know that you trust me enough to let me deal with this in my own way. I don't want you to be preoccupied with this, because it isn't important. You're stressed out right now, I had you running around town looking for Michael and then you had to deal with that bastard Durant… why don't you go inside and make yourself some tea, calm your nerves down a little. Jason and I need to discuss some things alone."

"All right…" he left the two adults in the hallway, opening and then closing the door. A part of him wanted to listen in on their conversation from behind the door, but he knew better than that. Sonny wanted his trust, and he was going to give it to his father, unconditionally, and in order for that to happen, Damian needed to give him some space.

"Maybe you should have told him," Jason said in his monotone way, always focused on the moment, on what needed to be done.

"You saw him, Jason," Sonny looked at the door for a moment before turning to his enforcer and best friend. "He had to deal with Durant earlier today, and if I told him that there was a chance that he could be involved in this because of what he did to protect me, to protect all of us, that would only break him down even more. I want to protect my children, and I'm going to…"

"Even if it means lying to them?"

"I'm not lying to him… when the time is right, I'm going to tell him," Sonny believed it… sort of. "He needs to know, and so does his Grandfather… but right now we don't need to deal with that. Sandoval is going to pass along the information that the person who owns Alcazar's territory is under my protection, and that anyone who messes with that person, whoever they are, will be dealing with me. Nobody knows that it's Damian that killed him… and as long as we keep our mouths shut we're going to have a little bit of time on our hands."

"They're not going to wait forever, Sonny. Alcazar had too much, even here, where he just started his business when he came to Port Charles. They might wait around for a little while, but eventually someone is going to get anxious and try and take it. It doesn't have to be Sandoval, it can be anyone…"

"Durant is our main concern," Sonny told Jason, stating the cold facts so that his best friend would not try and do too much. Jason was good at keeping everything together, but if he was spread too thin then there was a chance that he could break, and without Jason at his side, Sonny was extremely vulnerable, more vulnerable than he would have ever liked to admit. "He's here, now, he's going to try and take us down…"

"We haven't done anything that's been suspicious in weeks…"

"We just met with Armando Sandoval in an open area."

"Nobody was there, Sonny…" Jason did not want to use that moment to point out that he was against the idea of meeting Sandoval in such a place, Sonny had too much on his mind, and, as Jason was well aware, the more someone packed on Sonny, the easier it was for him to break.

"Where the hell does he get off accusing my kid of even being involved with us? I've done everything that I can to keep all the boys as far apart from who I really am as possible… and I think I've done a good job of it."

"Sonny, they have your last name… people know that you're their father, that they love you… they're only going to assume the worst. I'm not saying that it's fair, I'm not saying that it's right, but that's the way that they think…"

"I'm going to make him regret doing this to my son, Jason. He can try and come through me, I'm fine with that… I can take care of myself, but to throw a kid into his war against me? That's just pathetic…"

"He saw Michael, too… don't forget that."

"I haven't," Sonny remarked with a low growl. "What's he going to try and do now? Throw a nine year old into this? Mini-mobster in training… make it seem like I'm teaching Michael how to kill a man four times before they can even blink…"

"You need to focus, Sonny. You're upset, and you have every right to be, but when you get too angry you become too unfocused and you become vulnerable. Give it a day… let me and Stan work on this. I can have him look up any information that we can use against Durant, to send him away before he makes too much trouble for us… just a day, that's all I'm asking for."

"If you find anything…"

"You'll be the first to know."

Sonny nodded his head, "Thanks, Jason. You know I tell you this all the time, but if it weren't for you, I wouldn't be able to keep on going nearly as long as I have."

"You took a chance on me when nobody else would, you let me be the person that I needed to be… that's something that I can never repay you for."

"You're wrong… you've already repaid me a hundred times over for that, and you keep on staying loyal to me, even when we have our differences. I know I don't say this enough… but thank you." Sonny turned around, leaving Jason to do what Jason did best, protecting the people that he loved. Walking into the house, Sonny looked around at everything that he had acquired throughout the years, as well as the things that he had lost. Pictures, of his family now, and of Lily. Only a few of her, and, oddly enough, it was Carly's idea to have them there. She didn't want Sonny to think that he had to forget about everything that had happened to him before, everyone who had happened to him before.

His glance shifted over to the desk, where everything that contained who he was happened to be, safely secure inside of the many locked compartments, and still locked boxes that were inside. Again, his brown eyes, rich with fury and grief, scoured over, and he saw the phone. His hand reached over for it, and as he was about to touch the receiver, he pulled back. Sonny knew that there was someone else that he could look to for help, but he wasn't ready to ask… not yet.

Docks-

Carly and Courtney became fast friends shortly after they met. Now, they were closer than two sister-in-law's could hope to be, they were best friends, truly, they were like sisters. They would squabble at times, but in the end they would always come together, united by their love for one another, and for their family as well. It was not unusual to see Sonny's wife and his little sister together at any of the fine clothing places around Port Charles and the surrounding areas. Most often it was Carly who was doing most of the shopping, but there were times when Courtney herself regressed to the little girl who just loved to try everything on.

The dear friends laughed out loud as they walked towards their home. Carly had called Courtney shortly after Dillon had come home, telling her that she needed to come and see the outfits that had just come in. Although hesitant at first, Carly eventually wore down Courtney's resolve, and she was on her way to the store.

"So, are you glad that I managed to drag you to that place?" Carly asked between the laughs that they were sharing. Old memories, some considerably ancient, others that were still relatively fresh. It was good to be able to laugh, at times they both felt that there was almost never a time when they could just be regular women, when they were always going to be stuck as the wives of two very powerful mobsters, despite their claims that Sonny and Jason were completely legit.

"I could have gone without it…"

"Liar," Carly ribbed Courtney gently, "I saw those bright blue eyes of yours sparkle when you saw the dress that I knew you would love. You couldn't pay for that thing fast enough…"

"Now we just need to find some way for me to use it… we got lucky with New Years Eve, I don't know if we'll keep on getting lucky, Carly."

"Who says that we need the guys to have a fun night out?" Carly asked. "We can just do a girl's night out… just you and me…" Carly looked over and saw that Bobbie had yet to move from her place on the bench, "Mama…"

"What about Bobbie?" Courtney asked, wondering if Carly meant that they would also bring along Carly's mother. Courtney didn't mind, she was rather fond of Bobbie. Seeing Carly move in another direction out of the corner of her eye, Courtney followed Carly until she too saw Bobbie on the bench, looking sullen.

"Mama?" Carly reached over and touched Bobbie's shoulder as softly as she could. "Hey, I thought you were working today…"

"I took the day off," Bobbie tried to smile, but it was hard to keep her daughter from noticing the fact that she had shed a few tears since her latest meeting with Durant. "I just needed some time alone. I still do…"

"Courtney," Carly turned around, "could you… give me and my mother some time alone?"

"Yeah, sure," Courtney didn't mind. She would have asked the same thing if it was her mother who looked like she was having the worst day ever. "I'll be at home if you need anything. Bobbie, whatever it is that's bothering you, I hope you feel better."

"Thank you, Courtney… but I'm fine…"

Carly waited until Courtney was gone and out of earshot to speak again, "You're not fine, Mama. What's wrong? Is everything all right? Did something happen to Lucas?" Her little brother had been sent away to get a better education than he could have gotten at the local high school in Port Charles. Bobbie worried about him constantly, wondering how she could let him go alone without her. Her baby.

"Lucas is fine, Carly. He called me the other day, said he was doing good…"

"Then what is it?"

Bobbie smiled, forcing herself to do it despite the agony that she was feeling as she reached over and hugged her daughter. "Everything's going to be all right, Carly. I was just thinking about some things that I've done in my life, and how I wish that I could change them." She couldn't tell Carly the truth… couldn't let her know that her father was so close. Bobbie couldn't, wouldn't, dare take a chance of breaking apart everything that Carly had worked to obtain.


	22. Sisters and Friends

Scorpio Household-

Georgie was looking online at all the wonderful choices that she had to wear for the big day. It wasn't the biggest day, far from it, they still had prom, but, for Georgie, it was important nonetheless, because it was her last winter formal as a high school student. She remembered the first one that she ever had, before Dillon had returned to Port Charles, while he was still with his mother in Europe, before she knew that there was a person in the world for her, someone who just clicked with her, when she was so busy thinking that she would never have anyone that would understand her, would accept her for who she was. That dance seemed like magic. Georgie saw all the people who were kind of her friends as they were paired off and happily chatting about their first big dance as high school students, but Georgie… Georgie didn't have anyone that she could go with. Maxie tried to help, knowing that on some level the lack of a date hurt her little sister more than Georgie would ever let on, but Georgie did not want a pity date, she wanted someone that she could spend time with, someone who wanted to be with her. With each dress, Georgie looked and saw the color and how it would look if Dillon chose to go with the matching sash. She thought him to be more traditional. He even looked good in that not-quite-a-suit that he wore the first time that they went to a formal together. The time where she thought that he was trying to hurt her when all he wanted to do was keep her from being hurt. She realized just how much Dillon meant to her each time she thought about the mistakes that she had made before she realized that she cared about him… and how much she needed to apologize for it.

So enthralled by the quest for the perfect dress was the young valedictorian, something that everyone tried to tell her she would be even if she tried to be humble and say that there were other people who deserved it more than she, that Georgie hadn't even thought of the biggest hurdle that she would have to overcome: her father. Mac was the type of person who said one thing but rarely, if ever, meant it. He was being nice about her relationship with Dillon, nicer than he had ever been before, but Georgie knew good and well that her father still didn't quite trust Dillon and the sincerity of their relationship. Though it was a horrible thing to think about, Georgie placed some of the burden of Mac's opinion on Maxie's boyfriend. The minute that Dillon started hanging around Damian it seemed, to Mac at least, that Dillon was going down the path that he should have never gone down, that he was starting to become more and more like Jason. Mac didn't enjoy Dillon Quartermaine acting like a Quartermaine, but to think of him as a Quartermaine acting like a Morgan? That sent up so many red flags inside of Mac's subconscious that she knew it would be impossible to count. But, if there was one thing that Georgie knew above all else it was that Mac wanted her to be happy, because he loved his daughter dearly, and, it was her last winter dance. She could use that against Mac, get him to bend to her will, and she would. She was Maxie's little sister, throughout all the years of watching Maxie, even protecting her from herself, Georgie had picked up a few tricks of the trade.

Maxie needed to talk with someone, and, as soon as her shift, a shorter shift than usual, ended at the hospital she was well on her way home to talk with the best person that she knew that she could bring her problems to: her little sister. Maxie was also fully aware of the fact that Georgie did not deserve to be burdened with her many plights, but Maxie needed someone, and since it was directly involving her boyfriend, she couldn't confide in him, and Dillon… Dillon would probably tell Damian anything that she told him, because their relationship was extremely strong, a fact of life that was at times more a burden on Maxie than a blessing. She appreciated Dillon so much for everything that he was, both to her sister and to Maxie herself. A lone voice, unencumbered by the familial ties that she had to Georgie, a person that Maxie could look to for advice when she didn't think she could talk with anyone else. A part of that mystique had faded over time, through no fault of either party.

Georgie was too quiet in her room, doing nothing but looking at the keys as she typed in various specifics that she was looking for, moved her optical mouse on her desk, and sighed wistfully when she saw dresses that she believed to be beautiful. Despite the common believe that all dresses were beautiful, sans the horrid beasts known as bridesmaids dresses, Georgie knew better. She'd seen some ugly dresses in her time, and had even come across a few during her latest search. Of course, even if Georgie did find the perfect dress, she would not act upon it immediately. Logic would dictate that she did, but Georgie would instead spend days pining over the decision, changing her mind back and forth, getting Dillon's opinion and never believing it, surely angering him, all in the end to look 'perfect' for one night in the eyes of a boy that always thought she looked lovely. Who said it was easy being a woman?

Maxie listened at Georgie's door, looking for any sign that her little sister was inside. Sadly, nothing came to her, and she was about to turn away and leave her thoughts for another time when she heard Georgie groan loudly. Curious, and even a little afraid for her sister's wellbeing, Maxie knocked softly on the door, hoping that there was nothing that was horribly wrong with her sister. "Georgie, is everything all right?"

Georgie was surprised to hear the voice of her big sister, but called out to Maxie anyway, "Yeah, everything's fine."

"Can I come in?"

"Sure… the door's open." It was nice of Maxie to ask. Plenty of times, Maxie just thought that she could barge in to Georgie's room without any warning. There were even a few times when Maxie's assumptions of her free pass into Georgie's room disrupted the tender moments that she was having with Dillon at that time. It was during those moments that Georgie was less than pleased with her sister.

Maxie opened the door and almost immediately found Georgie at the desk, looking at her computer. Despite Georgie's intellect, the girl was not typecast as the 'female computer geek,' which made Maxie feel better about Georgie's potential. Dillon would love her regardless… but, in case something did happen, and there was always a chance that it could, Georgie needed to have as much going for her as she could if she ever needed to recover from losing him. "What are you looking at?"

Georgie moved to the side a little to give her sister a nice view of what she was looking at. "Nothing big, just looking for dresses. Dillon asked me to our last winter formal today. I accepted." Georgie left out the fact that she strong-armed her boyfriend into doing what she wanted, because it just sounded better if she said that he asked her instead of revealing the truth. "I want this one to look special…"

"Georgie, it's just the winter formal. Don't worry about making it special, save all that stress for prom…"

Georgie glared at Maxie, "Thanks for ruining prom for me…"

"What? You saw the way that I stressed out last year right before prom. I was so desperate… I almost called our mother."

"Really?" Georgie didn't know that it had impacted her sister that much, but she knew well and good how it must have felt for Maxie to feel even half that desperate as to call their mother.

"The thought had crossed my mind," Maxie nodded, sitting at the end of Georgie's bed. "I thought dad was just going to say that I couldn't go, because I spent so much time crying about how I was never going to look good enough for Kyle, that my hair was going to be horrible, that he wasn't going to love me…" she sighed. She hated it when she thought about the boy that she was once with, "In the end, none of that mattered. Nothing happened at prom, at least not for me… nothing worth remembering at least."

"Again with the negativity…"

"I don't mean it like that," Maxie corrected herself. "I'm just saying that, for me, I didn't have someone that I really cared about, truly. I thought I loved Kyle, but you know that I didn't, I know that I didn't now. You have Dillon, and you know that you care about him more than you could ever hope to explain. If I had that, maybe I would have done better with my prom day than I did."

"You wish that you had Damian with you, don't you?"

"Of course I do," Maxie smiled, but the smile quickly faded. "Look, I don't mean to come in here and bog you down with my problems, but… I really need someone to listen while I vent."

Georgie closed the window and walked over to the desk, she was done looking for dresses, and, even if she wasn't, she would gladly give it up for a few moments while she listened to her sister. It was part of Georgie's job, after all. "What's the matter?"

"I just… I keep on thinking that everything is going too well, you know? I keep on thinking that all of this is unreal, that I'm just imagining it, that things aren't as good as I want to see them, that there is something that I'm missing." Maxie sighed and threw herself backwards, "I know that he loves me, Georgie. I know it in my heart, but in my mind I keep on thinking that he's going to do something with Brook, because I know that they have so much more in common with each other than Damian and I do. I know that Brook wants him, too…"

Georgie nodded. Brook was her friend, and Georgie thought she was a good person, but there was no denying that Brook had made it part of her mission to attempt to steal Damian away from Maxie. Maybe not so much in words, but the attraction was there. The looks that Brook gave, trying to be discrete, they told everything. She was very expressive with her eyes. But that didn't mean that anything was going to change. "What do you want me to say, Maxie?"

"I don't know… just make me feel better. Please."

Georgie patted her sister's hand softly, "Damian loves you, Maxie, just like you said, you know it, I know it, Dillon knows it, Brook knows it, and he knows it. Nothing is going to change… at least not right now. Even if he does think that Brook is attractive, even if he thinks that he could care about her, he isn't going to throw away anything that you could give him, because you've given him something that he never had before. You're always going to be his first love, Maxie. Nothing is going to change that. Brook will never be able to take that away from you, no matter how hard she tries."

"This would be so much easier if I didn't have to worry about it… I wish Brook would have just stayed wherever the hell that she was. Nobody wanted her to come here, everything would have been just fine without her." Was it horrible to say those things? Yes, but, at that moment, Maxie really didn't care. Everything that she said was the truth. Sitting up again, Maxie hugged her sister, "Thanks, I know I might not sound it, but you really did make me feel better about everything."

"I might ask you to return the favor soon…"

"Huh?"

"I might need your help picking out a dress," Georgie smiled coyly, "and, I'm calling my trump card now. Whenever I need you, you come, no questions asked, no complaints, you just come."

Morgan Household-

The severity of the situation had yet to truly go down, but he could at least function without feeling the choking grip of doubt swirling around his body and threatening to consume him whole. It was at times like that, when everything seemed to be closing in on him, that Damian realized just how fortunate he was to have people like Dillon in his life, people who he could talk with if he needed it, or even if he didn't. Damian didn't much feel like talking to his best friend about his problems, but if there was one thing that he knew it was that Dillon had a way of making him forget about his worries.

Damian walked into the house, having long ago been given the express permission to no longer knock before he entered. Still, there was a small part of him that felt like he was doing something immoral. What if he walked in on a scene that he should not have seen? How would he be able to keep himself from feeling intensely guilty for intruding into an area where he was clearly not welcome. A problem surely worth contemplating another time, but the worry never managed to get too far away from his mind.

Dillon was on the couch in the living room, not looking at the television, not doing his homework, sort of just existing, with little in the way of rhyme or reason. Hearing the door open and close, he turned his head, acknowledging the fact that it was his best friend who entered with a simplistic response. "Hey."

"You know, generally, you don't get in to college just by sitting there and doing nothing. You actually have to open the book, do the reading, and the homework, and pass the tests. I'm sure you might think that the money that your family has managed to amass over the centuries somehow makes you immune to such common practices, but it doesn't…"

"Seriously, you've been to my family's house too many times… even I don't talk like them."

Damian smiled, "Practice, Dillon. Plus, all those movies that you've made me watch with those rich people… they all sound the same. In fact, your mother would be perfect for them, if she were an actress."

"I think she would kill the director in a few seconds if she was cast. Ironic, since I want to be a director, I know…"

"You okay?" It was unusual for Dillon Quartermaine to not be doing something. He was certainly one of the more active people that Damian had ever met, this side of his little brother. Dillon was almost an adult, a grown man in many ways, more mature than people wanted to believe him to be, a fact that was hidden by his eccentric nature, especially his hair.

"I guess," Dillon said with a shrug. "I mean, nothing bad is going on in my life… I'm just… I don't know, Georgie… she wants to go to the winter formal, you know? She's a girl, the minute she gets a chance to dress up she wants to take it…"

"That's stereotypical, don't you think?"

"Well, maybe not all girls are like that, but she is… and, she dragged me into it. I just want to make her happy, but I really don't want to do it. I've done the dress up thing so many times in my life, it's just redundant and stupid."

Redundant though it may have been, there was really only one thing that mattered. He asked the question, "You love her, don't you?"

"Of course."

"Then I'm pretty sure your mind is made up. I'll help you pick out a tux or something… make sure you don't look too much like a Quartermaine." Even when he was on the borders of misery, Dillon found a way to make his friend smile, and that was what made Dillon who he was.


	23. All Those Things

Port Charles-

"I don't see why you don't just come up with us…"

"It's quite simple, if I get too close, I remember things, and then I break out into hives. I'm allergic to nostalgia for teenage angst."

"And yet you're dating a teenager…"

"Maxie might be nineteen, but at least she's out of high school." Damian had walked with Dillon towards Port Charles High, but kept his distance. He could see it in the horizon, but could not get too close. Damian was a lot like Dillon in that he hated his time at high school, but, unlike his best friend, Damian was almost completely alone when it came to the school. He didn't have a girlfriend at the time, or a niece, or even people that he could really think of as good friends. He had people who he would hang around from time to time, but he felt that he was more distanced from the rest of them than anyone else could. He didn't even fit in with the 'outcasts' that wore black and eyeliner.

"I should drag you there one of these days."

"You do that and I swear on everything that is holy that I will tell Georgie that you don't really want to go to that winter formal dance, and then she'll be upset with you."

"You wouldn't…"

Damian smiled, "Try me, Dillon. The Quartermaine's might be good at blackmailing, but I have a few tips up my sleeve, and what are you going to do that would help make up for my trump card?"

"I… I…"

"That's what I thought." The smile widened to a grin, "Relax, Dillon, I wouldn't even think about actually doing something to harm your relationship with Georgie…"

"Only because if you did, Maxie would end up being upset at you."

"Why does that have to be the only reason?" Damian asked, pretending to be offended, knowing that the two of them were just going back and forth with the jabs, like best friends should have done. It was not something that he was used to, but it was something that he enjoyed doing. "It can't be because I think that you're one of the best people that I've ever met, and, hurting you would be a violation of my ethics?"

"Corinthos's have ethics?"

"You bastard…"

Dillon realized that it may have hit a little too close to home. Although Damian didn't look like it hurt him, Dillon still felt the need to apologize, "Look, I was just kidding around. I know that you and your dad are way better people than the media is trying to portray you to be."

"Thanks. It helps knowing that there are a few people who don't think of me as some cold blooded killer in training."

"Now, if only we could get my father to agree with that," Georgie walked up to them from her side of town. Dillon and Georgie liked to meet together before they went to school, that way they could go hand in hand and ward off the evil together. Truly, in such a game, two people had a better shot at making it out alive than just one. "But he knows how much you mean to Maxie, Damian, and, if anything is going to endear you to him, it's that."

"It just seems like every time that Mac might actually start trusting me, or at least not hating me without much reason, something happens that sets everything that I've been working for back a few steps. Believe me, Georgie, I want your father to see me for the person that I am, not for the person that I'm supposed to be because of the blood that runs through my veins, or because of my family." He was a child of the mob, there was no denying it. He couldn't even say that there was a part of him that wasn't born into violence, because there wasn't. Even though he hadn't realized it for twenty-one years, he did now.

"You're always going to have us," Dillon said assuredly. "Me, Georgie, Maxie, Brook, we're never going to say that you're some horrible person. I know it isn't much, I know that people just think that we're kids and we're not seeing the big picture, but we're not as blind as they want us to be. Besides, I'm sure Alan and Monica could vouch for you, if push came to shove… and Bobbie… and Elizabeth… and Ric. You've got a lot of people in your camp."

"Is there something that you're not telling me?" Damian asked, a cautionary glare given to Dillon.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing… just… I don't know, it seems like you're trying to prepare me for something that I need to brace myself for. Like you know something that I don't know. Do you know something? Is there something happening that I'm not aware of… that I should be aware of?"

"No, of course not," Dillon didn't want to alarm his friend, even if he was fully aware of the fact that people were slowly trying to rethink their position on Damian and his motives. Dillon knew that they would correct themselves in time, realizing that they were fools for even fathoming that someone like him would have some sort of sinister intent. "I'm just saying that, if push comes to shove, and you have to do something to defend yourself against the people that want to bring you down, you don't have to do it alone."

"He's telling the truth, Damian," Georgie agreed. She put her hand on his face and gripped, "Would that face lie?"

"In a heartbeat…"

Dillon threw his hands up in the air, "I'm putting out applications for a new best friend!"

"Who would take one?" Damian quietly asked, again with the tongue in cheek humor. People didn't realize that Dillon was eccentric because that was just the way that he was. He wasn't 'trying' to go against the mold, he was just being who he needed to be, who he was comfortable being. People were always trying to bring him down for the decisions that he made, and it was completely unfair. If Dillon was going to help defend Damian, then it was only right that the situation was reversed. Brothers in arms, a position that both gladly accepted.

"I would," Georgie replied. "Dillon's my best friend, too…"

"I'm touched," Dillon looked down and gently kissed his girlfriend on the lips. "No wonder I'm taking you to the winter formal."

"I'm sure it didn't have anything to do with the forcing I put on you…"

"Of course not."

"You're a horrible liar," Georgie said with a light chuckle, "but you're also incredibly easy to break down, that's why I love you."

"She wants to mold you into her ideal man, Dillon." Damian replied with a cautionary tone, but it was not serious. Very little of the conversation that they had when they were around one another was serious. Doctors were supposed to be humorless creatures, and that was not something that Damian wanted to uphold. He wanted to have friends outside the practice, he wanted to be able to laugh with them. He wanted to be as normal as he could be. Something that was hard to do, given who he was, but he understood, and accepted his role.

"Mold away, sculptress," Dillon replied whimsically.

"Okay, you too are getting a little too Dawson for my tastes," that was serious. After all, he could only take so much gushing, even when the gushing happened to be gushing about his own relationship. "I'll talk to you guys later, I need to get myself to my classes, too."

"Bye, Damian," Georgie called out. As soon as he was far enough away, she tugged on Dillon's arm, "Don't you think you should have told him?"

Dillon shook his head, "I know that people are just overreacting, Georgie. Your father always does that, there's no reason to put any undue stress on him because of what people are talking about behind his back. He deserves better than that. Come on, we don't want to be late for class."

Damian had only been walking for a few minutes before he saw Brook walking towards the school. "Hey, Brook."

"Oh, hey," Brook smiled and moved her hair out of her face the moment that she saw him. She wanted to try and appear as good as she could for him. "You on your way to school?"

"Yeah, another test… they never end. Be happy that you're not trying to be a doctor like the rest of your family, it's a lot of work." He grinned, "But I'm sure that you could handle it, if you really wanted to. You're the type of person who can deal with everything and never break."

"If you really believed that I was that kind of person I wouldn't need to come to you when I wanted some help with a problem."

"There's nothing wrong with getting any sort of help for your problems, Brook," Damian said with assurance. "I know my dad hates asking for help from anyone, even your mom, but that doesn't mean that it's a bad thing. It's just part of who he is. Sonny Corinthos needs to be a manly man."

"And what about Damian Corinthos?" Brook asked. "What kind of person does he need to be?"

"Strong enough to find a way to deal with everything that is thrown at him… a lot like you, actually."

"You think we're alike?"

Damian shrugged, "We are alike in a lot of ways, sure. Our parents are best friends, and we're pretty good friends, even though we haven't known each other for that long. We both feel like we don't belong in our families at times, because we're used to one thing and what we have now is something that's completely different… and we both love music."

"You know, I was trying to write a song with my dad, and I thought that you would be good at playing it. It's more melodic than anything that a guitar could get at, I think a piano would be perfect."

"If I had the time I would love to do something with you more often, Brook. I'd love to just sit there and play the piano while you sang, but I have so much on my plate. But… whenever we do get together, know that it really is one of the best times of the day for me. Hearing you sing, it's so soothing and beautiful."

Brook blushed, "Stop it…"

"I'm sure your date for the winter formal would agree with me."

She turned her head to the side, "There is no date, Damian. I don't know if I'm going to go."

"Brook, you should go… I mean, if you want to go. Trust me, people are probably waiting to ask you, you just need to open up a little. I'm not saying throw yourself at a person and hope for the best… but give them a chance. There are people out there that will see you for who you are, and will care about you because of it. Sorry, I wish I could talk with you some more, but I need to go."

Brook watched him leave, whispering to herself, "You're all those things…"

Corinthos Household-

Sonny kept on walking back and forth between the phone and the couch, sometimes he would reach out and touch it, other times he wouldn't, but he would pull his hand back even if it did go out. He knew that he needed help, but it was not something that he enjoyed to admit. And he also knew who he could look for to help him, again, it wasn't something that he wanted to deal with.

Sonny walked into another room, looking at the picture of Ana-Maria, Damian's mother. "I don't know what to do, Ana. I don't know how to help our son, not in this way… I don't know if I can make the sacrifice that I need to make, if I can trust the person who I need to look for to help me. There's just so much pain and bad blood… I don't know how I'll get passed it."

Although he knew that there was nothing the picture could do, Sonny looked for help from the spirit of his son's mother. He was a very spiritual man, something that people tended to think of as foolish, but to Sonny, it made perfect sense. And so did the message that was pouring into his mind, a message about how he was Damian's father, and he needed to do what was best for his son, nothing else.

Sonny walked over to the phone once more and picked it up. Still there was that hesitant feeling, but he forged through it, pushing himself forward until he dialed the numbers that he needed to dial. "I need to meet with you… as soon as possible."


	24. Depending On Someone

Samsonlove- You don't have to worry about not reviewing, school is important, I get this. Plus, it's easy for me to write a story, since I'm invested in what I'm writing instead of being forced to write it like you were with the paper. You know, the more 'canon' tag for Jason and Sam is Jasam, but, more power to you. You're right, Courtney has been placed through the character assassination machine. Worry not, my story will keep the integrity of Courtney Matthews Morgan instead of forcing her into some horrible version that doesn't even remind people of the character that she once was. I'm glad that you're enjoying, since you're also the only one reviewing. It makes me sad.

Story-

Morgan Household-

Courtney walked through the house, picking up things that were left here and there. True, she could have just as easily hired a maid to do everything that she needed, but Courtney hated to be the type of person who couldn't depend on herself. She had done it for such a long time, ever since she could remember. Like her big brother, Courtney didn't have an ideal childhood. Like Sonny, Courtney found herself in a mess because of the fact that her father was not anywhere when she needed him to be around. Unlike Sonny, however, Courtney didn't allow it to make her incredibly bitter. Yes, she wished that she had her father around when she needed him, but she also understood that it was in the past, and, while it hurt, she couldn't focus on it. Sonny did, and because of that focus Courtney knew that Sonny and Mike would never really be close. They could be together without trying to kill each other, they might even share a hug, but they would never have the relationship that most father's had with their sons, and vice-versa.

Besides, cleaning up around the house gave Courtney Morgan something that she could do. Being the wife of Jason meant that she didn't need to work anymore. Courtney, on some level, enjoyed that, enjoyed knowing that she no longer had to worry about living from paycheck to paycheck, where she could actually have things that she would see the rich people who ran around Atlantic City wearing, and she wouldn't have to buy some cheap knockoff. The little girl who wanted nothing more than a beautiful diamond necklace had that, and everything else that she could ever dream for, but, in the end, Courtney found that the things that she had brought her a feeling of complete emptiness. It was good at one moment, but at the next she realized that it was pointless and stupid. Who cared how much jewelry she had? It didn't matter to her. Shiny wasn't all that great. The people around her… they were what made her life special.

The woman picked up a textbook from the couch. Dillon had left it during the night. She smiled as she looked inside, seeing the little messages that he wrote to someone, presumably Georgie. His book was littered with things like that. She remembered doing the same thing for the people that she thought she cared about. Remembered writing her name each time she thought she had found 'the one,' in her notebook. Courtney Andrews, Courtney Myers, Courtney Green. None of them felt nearly as important to her as Courtney Morgan. But that was because she hadn't realized that Jason was someone that she would always love, throughout it all. The other people that she thought she loved she quickly broke it off with when something didn't go the way that she expected. People thought that she had her expectations too high when she was in school, but the truth was she just wasn't finding what she was looking for. She never even found it with AJ, only when she was with Jason did she find something that she needed, something that made her feel complete. Courtney sincerely hoped that Dillon had found that with Georgie. Courtney thought that Georgie was a nice girl, very smart, and good for Dillon. It would have been so easy for Dillon to fall off into the abyss of his family, but he had someone who he could look to for help, for strength, in Georgie. Maybe he didn't appreciate it, but Courtney did, and Jason might have as well.

The man in question walked into the room from outside shortly after Courtney began her activities. Jason tried to sound as quiet as possible, and he was good at making it seem like he wasn't around, probably the best person in Port Charles at being the silent one. He watched his wife as she walked around, looking at things, putting them back in place if they weren't to her liking. Courtney wasn't like anyone that he had ever known, and it was that aspect of Courtney that had endeared Courtney to Jason. People thought that he was just with Courtney because he wanted to pay his brother back for everything that Jason had lost because of AJ and his mistakes, but they were wrong. Jason was with Courtney because Jason really wanted to be with her. And AJ was beside the point. As far as Jason was concerned, AJ causing him to have that accident was probably one of the best things to ever happen to him. It freed him from an eternity of being trapped under an image that he would try to uphold. One that would eventually kill him from the inside.

It was useless to point out that Courtney did not need to do anything that she was doing. Jason had lost that fight long ago, and he didn't hold it against Courtney in the least. If she wanted to be the one who cleaned up their house, then so be it. Unless he saw her cleaning up Dillon's room. That was where he drew the line. Dillon may have lived with them, but that was it. Courtney wasn't his maid, and Jason wasn't… whatever he was supposed to be.

Courtney turned around and saw her husband staring at her with his impossibly blue eyes. She gasped and took a step back. A moment was taken to recover and she placed a hand on her chest, "Sorry, Jason. You startled me. Why didn't you say anything when you came in?"

"Maybe I wanted to watch you think that you were alone for a little while…" Jason replied as he took a few steps forward. "Sometimes I think that I take you for granted, the fact that you're here, with me, when you could be with someone else who could give you more than I could ever hope to give you."

Courtney shook her head, "You give me everything that I would ever want from someone, Jason. I don't need to be with anyone else, and I don't want to be with anyone else. I'm just glad that you think I'm worth keeping around…"

"Why wouldn't I?"

"You know why, Jason. You're always afraid of pushing people away too much because of what you do for my brother. You're afraid of being forced to close a part of yourself off to everyone, even me, and, even though you don't want to act like it, it does scare you."

"How do you know it scares me?"

"Because the greatest thing that you are is a lover, Jason. And I don't just mean that in the physical sense… I mean, when you love someone, you love them so much that it hurts to even think for a second that something is going to go wrong, that one day you'll wake up and be alone, that the people you care about won't be there for you anymore. People might think that you're unfeeling, uncaring, but those people are idiots who don't know the person who you really are. I'm not blind, I can see those things."

Jason wrapped his arms around his wife's waist. "That's why I love you, because of the way that you see me, the way that you force me to deal with things that even I try and stay away from. You keep me honest. I can never thank you enough for that."

"You know… I was thinking that we could surprise Michael and Morgan later today, take them to go see the animals in the zoo or something. They got a new Panda, and an Ocelot, and a bunch of other animals, too. The boys, they love animals… and they love spending time with you. And I know how much it makes you feel good being around them, too."

"Courtney…"

She sighed, "Don't say no, Jason. Please. You've been in one of your moods lately, and I know that you won't tell me about them, but I want to help keep you from falling into it too deeply. And I also know that Michael was upset about something yesterday, Carly told me last night… and it would make him feel better. Please, Jason… I just want to spend some time with my family."

"All right…"

"Really?"

Jason nodded, "I could never make someone that means so much to me sad." The worst part was, for Jason at least, that each time he spent a day with his family, he was fully aware that there was a chance that it could be his last. That he could be gone the next morning, or worse, they could.

Park-

Sonny picked a neutral location to meet the person who he had called. He had to, they both had places where meeting would just be too suspicious. The last thing that Sonny needed was more suspicion on him, especially with John Durant around. Sonny didn't get much sleep, he was always worried about what John Durant was going to do, if he could do anything. He may have put up a very brave face, but the thought of Durant ruining everything that he had worked his entire life for? That scared Sonny, a lot.

"Have to admit, when you called me… I wasn't as surprised as I should have been."

"Then maybe I shouldn't have called you. Maybe you had something to do with it."

"I've given up my agenda against you, big brother, you know that."

"Cut the crap, Ric, I called you here for a reason."

"Would it be a fair assumption to make that the reason I'm here involves someone with the initials J and D?"

"You didn't graduate from that fancy law school for nothing."

Ric was a little amused, for all the wrong reasons. "I can't believe it, the high and mighty Sonny Corinthos… afraid of a little lawyer."

"You know… this was a bad idea."

"Wait, Sonny," Ric called. "I promise I won't make fun of you anymore… it's just… I wasn't expecting this."

"You think I like being like this, Ric?" Sonny asked somewhat bitterly. "I get rid of people that get in my way… except for you."

"I'm special."

"You're my little brother, it isn't a fact that I enjoy admitting, but that doesn't make it any less true. Plus, you helped save my son's life when he could have died…"

"So, why did you call me here, Sonny?"

"I need your help."

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me," the man growled. "I hate asking for help, Ric, especially yours, but I need someone on the inside, someone who can help me make a move against Durant in case he tries to do something against me."

"Sonny, I could lose my job…"

"You shouldn't even have that job. How many other District Attorney's are kidnappers?"

"I want Durant gone just as much as you do. He thinks that I am involved with you… and he won't believe that I'm not, even if I am not. So, what's the point of fighting some stereotype if not doing it won't help me…"

"Why do you want him gone?"

"He's an upstart, Sonny. He thinks that he's god gift to the universe…"

"Sounds like someone else I know. Someone I'm looking at."

"Look, I won't pretend that I wasn't bad, but, even at my worst, I wasn't even a fraction as self-absorbed as Durant is. I want him gone because he wants to take my job. I like this job, Sonny, I like the way it makes me feel like I can redeem myself in some small way."

"He's attacking your nephew…"

"I know…"

"What do you mean, you know?"

Ric looked at Sonny for a moment before he turned his head away slightly. "John's been around since three days ago… and the first thing he did was tell me that I'm being fooled by my nephew. That he's not really the person that he claims to be, that he's trying to destroy everyone around him, just for you."

"But you don't believe him, right?" Sonny wondered. "You don't really think that I would use one of my children in my business? Ric, you know me better than that, you know that I would do anything to keep my children safe… why would I compromise their safety like that?"

"Maybe you're not the one who is making the choice, Sonny. Maybe he's doing it to impress you, endear himself to you."

"Listen to me, Ric… he isn't doing anything. I would know if he was. I have people watching him all the time… I have to."

"What?" Ric was surprised that Sonny had people spying on his own son. "Why do you have people watching him?"

"It doesn't matter…" Sonny didn't want Ric to know the truth. "I'm giving you this chance to get into my life, little brother, something that you've always wanted, something you've told me time and time again that you wish you had. You're getting a chance to help me protect my family, your family. Don't screw it up."


	25. Old Mistakes

Carly and Leticia were taking Morgan through a walk in the park. The baby loved it when he could be alone with his mother and his nanny, it was evident by the smile that was on his cherub-like face. Every time Carly looked at Morgan, she thought she saw something new, something that made her love him even more, if such a thing was possible. Carly already loved Morgan with every fiber of her soul, to love him more seemed impossible, but, if there was one thing that Carly knew, it was that there were ways to make things that were impossible possible.

Carly took a deep breath, closing her eyes for a moment before she opened the again. Turning, she looked at Leticia, who was pushing the stroller that Morgan was in, "Even though it's winter, and everything is dead, it's still a very beautiful day, isn't it? The air smells so clean and fresh." Carly may have loved New York City for the stores, and she did, but there was one thing that Carly did not love about the big city, and that was the way that it smelled. Her materialistic side may have had its appetite filled by the time that they left, but the other parts of her? They longed for home, the place she knew best, the place where her family was. Carly came to Port Charles all those years before, looking to destroy everything that her mother had touched, because of the way that Bobbie ruined her life. Who knew that now she could have everything that she wanted, everything that she dreamed of? A loving husband, beautiful children, best friends who she could always count on, and a mother who she was close to now. The only thing that Carly was missing was her father. Although she had finally given up a small amount of hope in finding him, whoever he was, she would always know that there was a part of herself that wanted to know the man, no matter who he was.

"I think Morgan likes it just as much as you do, Mrs. Corinthos," Leticia said as she looked down to see the baby, his arms and feet dangling around wildly. Leticia loved Michael and Morgan with all her heart. They were like children to her, although they weren't hers. There were times when she thought about leaving, thought about taking her services somewhere that wasn't as dangerous, but the boys meant so much to her, and she couldn't just abandon them. Besides, it was going to be hard to find a job that was as lucrative as working for Sonny Corinthos.

"That's because Morgan's like his big brother. Aren't you, Morgan? You love being out in the open, looking at the pretty things that nature can give you. They're so beautiful, aren't they, baby?"

Ric was coming back from his meeting with Sonny, the occasion fresh on his mind. Yes, he wanted John Durant to get out of Port Charles, and out of his hair, but Ric had taken an oath, one that said that he would serve and protect the people of Port Charles. Was working for Sonny Corinthos, his brother, who he knew was in the mob, despite claims that he may not have been, really taking that in the right direction? Maybe he was looking at it in the wrong light. Maybe he shouldn't have looked at it as working with Sonny, but more as working against Durant. People thought that Baldwin was a bad District Attorney, but Ric knew that Scott didn't compare to John. John was so intent on getting what he wanted that he would have no problem throwing everything out into the air, every rule, every regulation, just if it meant taking down someone for a crime as innocent as jaywalking. Ric couldn't have a person like that running the law in Port Charles. He may not have been the most perfectly moral person, but Ric had grown in strides as an individual since he arrived, and he was becoming more and more like a person that people could respect.

So caught up in his own thoughts was Ric that he didn't hear the voice that would have made him turn around and go another way. Carly was his sister-in-law, but, like typical relationships between the in-laws, they weren't exactly the best of friends. That was more Ric's fault than Carly's fault, a fact that he openly admitted. He had apologized time and time again for everything that he had done to Carly, but Ric was fully aware that people just didn't forget the pains that had been wrought upon them. He had 'given' up his quest to destroy Sonny, but that didn't mean that there still weren't moments when the animosity of their mother choosing Sonny over Ric did not burn inside of Ric's heart. Unable to turn around without being noticed, Ric decided to take his chances and walked towards Carly and her son. "Well, isn't this a sight for prying eyes. Carly and her baby, out in the open." Ric smiled at his nephew, a baby whose life he had once looked to ruin. Now, all he saw were innocent eyes that, in some small way, reminded Ric of himself. "Hi, Morgan. Look at how big you've gotten. Pretty soon you're going to be up and running around…"

Carly and Leticia shared a cautionary glance with one another. They were both fully aware of Ric and his past, the things that he had done. Carly much more than Leticia, but there was no love loss between Ric and the nanny. "Leticia, why don't you take Morgan home, I'll catch up in a few minutes, all right?" Leticia said nothing, only gave a nod as she pushed the stroller away from Ric, but not without looking at him one time, her cold eyes hiding none of the animosity and fright.

"You know, I can't believe how much that boy has grown… and he's only, what? A year and a half?"

"I can't believe that you wanted to take away the sight of me watching my own child grow in front of my eyes," Carly remarked bitterly.

The words cut Ric deeply, he felt the pain in every part of his body. But there was no denying that Carly was speaking the truth. "Carly… I know that nothing I can ever do or say is going to make up completely for everything that I've done, but I've told you and Sonny both time and time again that I'm deeply sorry for everything that I did to you when you were pregnant with Morgan. You have to understand… I wasn't in the right frame of mind, I thought that Sonny had cost me my child, I was dealing with losing a baby. You've dealt with that pain before, too, Carly. I know you have. You know the things that go through a person's head, the ways that they want to do anything, anything at all to get that feeling back, the feeling that they had when they were expecting to be a parent."

"I might have known what you were going through, Ric, but even when Sonny and I lost our first child together I never thought about having someone kidnapped and chained to a wall while she was pregnant with a child just to feel the part of myself that had died along with that baby again…"

"You have Michael, you've always had Michael. You and Sonny had someone to fall back on, someone that you could still love and cherish with all your heart. Elizabeth and I didn't. We didn't have anyone."

"Look, I'm sorry that you and Elizabeth lost your baby, I truly am. You're not my favorite people in the world, either of you, but I would never wish that kind of pain on anyone, even someone that I hate as much as you."

"I just… I just want you to forgive me. I want you to know that I know that what I did was horrible, and that I'm deeply sorry for it."

"You keep on saying it, and even if I do believe it, that doesn't mean that I'm going to forgive you for it. Do yourself a favor, Ric, stay the hell away from my family!"

Ric watched as Carly walked passed him, his eyes lowered. Without turning around, he spoke to her again, "You might want to tell your husband about the way that you detest me."

Carly stopped as well, "Sonny's always know how much I've hated you, ever since he got me back from all the crap that you put me through."

"Goodbye, Carly." Ric finally started to walk back towards the PCPD station, feeling the cold wind brush against his exposed flesh, almost numbing it. That was a good feeling, because it almost helped Ric with the pain that he was feeling. Almost.

Coffee House-

There was a little coffee house that was only a few minutes away from the main PCU campus, relatively close to the dorms. Damian could have stayed there when he arrived in Port Charles, but, since he wasn't a freshman, he didn't want to have that kind of experience. Add in the fact that, as an only child, he was accustomed to having things a certain way, his way, it just didn't make for dorm life being all that lucrative. He'd probably end up getting some idiot as a roommate who he would wind up hating and wanting to get out of his life. Although it wouldn't have mattered in the end. Damian had lived at Kelly's for only a few days before Sonny came and swooped him up into his world, into his life. True, there was that momentary pause where he had retreated into the sanctuary that Kelly's gave him, that feeling that he had where things made sense amid the chaos that his life had become, but, on the whole, he was living with his dad and his family in the penthouse, something that he didn't foresee changing anytime soon. He may have been twenty-one, which was a little old to live at home in some cases, but, at the same time he was Hispanic, and his values and morals were deeply intertwined with the values of morals of his family. In a lot of homes the children didn't leave until they were married, whatever age that may have been. They stayed with their parents, sometimes even after they were married if the connection was that strong. He remembered that his Tio Andres was twenty-six when he finally met and married his wife. It was just the way that they worked, and he didn't see anything that was wrong with it. In fact, a small part of Damian missed Los Angeles, a bigger part than he thought, actually.

One of the many, many medical textbooks that he was required to have read by the end of the year was placed on the table, his eyes scouring the information, retaining as much as he possibly could before he felt that his head could explode. Dillon and Georgie had it easier than they thought, and they weren't taking advantage of it. If Damian had known then what he knew now, about how much work he would have done in medical school, although he knew it wasn't going to be easy, he would have spent a little more time enjoying the relatively lax workload that he had in high school. Even with the advice of a certified college student, he knew that the teens weren't appreciating his knowledge, his insight. Already he had reserved the right to say 'I told you so' to both of them when they talked to him about how much they needed to do.

Damian turned away from the book for a moment to look around him at the students that made the coffee house their home away from home. A few of them were somewhat familiar faces, people that he knew by name and face, but not people that he really knew. In some ways, college was like high school, people didn't like to associate with those that they didn't quite know or understand. They were less vocal about it, which was a curse just as much as it was a blessing. He saw the way that they latched onto those that they knew, avoiding the people that they didn't know as well, or at all. They probably all knew who he was, most people in Port Charles did. And, they probably believed everything that people were saying about him, and his father. Most of it was true: he was a mob prince, although he didn't identify with that aspect of his life. At times the scope of his situation truly did baffle him. It was still so hard for him to see his loving, tender grandfather as a person who was once so cold and callous, dodging rival gunfire left and right. It was so hard for him to think of his Papi like that. Not his grandfather. But, no, Elias had admitted to it when asked, and Elias had never lied to his grandson, not even when Damian pleaded with him to say that there was some way that the doctors could make his mother better when she was terminal.

At times, Damian realized just how much he was going to lose. Dillon, Georgie, Brook, they were all dear friends to him, some more than others, but that didn't make any of them less important to him, even though all three of them were in high school… and, at the end of the year, all three of them would also be gone, going to the schools that they wanted. Georgie would probably go to some Ivy League school where she would come back with a pompous attitude, no longer the innocent little girl that she was. Brook would go to some music school and amaze the people around her with her beautiful voice, one that would surely catch the attention of the people around her, getting her a recording contract in just a matter of moments. Then, she would become a worldwide sensation, making people feel the deepest of emotions with her moving voice and lyrics. She wouldn't be the girl that he knew anymore. She'd have people that she could go to when she had problems, she wouldn't need him to be her crying shoulder, to be able to talk with him when she needed someone to blame. And then there was Dillon, the boy that he connected with so quickly that it surprised him. Damian had seen many, many rich people in Los Angeles, a lot of them went to his school, battling their parents for Public education because it made them stand out more. They were the guys and girls that could have everything that they wanted because mommy and daddy would just gladly fork out the money without a second thought. The ones who didn't need to try and do anything, because even if they failed they still had a nice comfortable cushion to fall back on. Dillon could have been exactly like them, but he wasn't. He was different. He was special. And not the short bus kind of special, but the special that people aspired to be, unique, a visionary. He would go far in his chosen craft, Damian was certain of it, and he was also certain that he would go to each and every movie that Dillon directed… but if he would go as a mere member of the audience, or as a friend… that was something that he wasn't quite so sure about. His friends, the people that he cared about, they could all change from the people that they were to him at that moment without a second thought. And what if they forgot about him… what if he lost them all?

Only Maxie would remain by his side, which meant that he would at least have a constant connection with Georgie, unless Georgie decided to cut off her ties to her less educated sister, which was not something that Damian thought Georgie capable of doing, but that didn't mean that she couldn't do it. Maxie wasn't even a student at PCU, she was a student at the community college, although she was looking to attempt transferring over at the end of the year, and, luckily, her grades in college were a lot better than her grades in high school. If push came to shove, would Damian actually use the leverage that he had to swing the vote in his girlfriend's favor? Maybe. But, even if he did, what kind of person did that make him? He hated asking himself that question, he hated even thinking for a moment that he could use his situation to his advantage. It was part of who he was, he couldn't deny that, but it wasn't who he was, he didn't identify with it.

"You ever wonder why you're always alone?"

Damian turned his eyes up from the book to see Durant staring at him. "Trying to see if you can find a young girl that you can bed, Mr. Durant?" Damian asked coldly, "That's what you like, right? You like them young. At least you did when you constantly paid for Bobbie's services…"

"I could have gotten those for free."

"Or at least for the cost of enough liquor to place her in such a drunken stupor that she thought you were someone that was marginally worth spending a moment with."

"Now look here, amigo…"

"And a bigot, too. Boy, you're just the poster child for politics, aren't you? Well, actually, I think you are something of a poster child for politics. You lie, you use your contacts for your advantage… shall I keep on going? The list is pretty long."

"Who do you think they're going to believe, Damian?" Durant asked, leaning against the table where Damian was sitting. "Me? The upstanding District Attorney, who is credited for making the streets of New York City a lot safer than they were ten years ago. Or you? The son, and the grandson of noted mobsters?" Damian's eyes went wide, which only made John smile. "You think I don't do my research? I know all about it, kid. You're not playing with some minor leaguer here. You're playing with the big boys now, and, as far as the major league goes, I'm a star. Why don't you mull over that for a little while, huh?" John winked and turned around, leaving Damian alone, alone to think about just how much John knew. And just how serious he was.


	26. Not A Real Family

Samsonlove- My bad, I thought that the Samson in your name was for Sam and Jason, not Sam and Sonny. You're right, though, for what they were they were actually pretty good. A lot of people, and I mean a lot, hated the idea of Sam and Sonny together, and while I wasn't exactly thrilled with breaking up Carson like they did, I didn't hate Sam or Kelly because of it. I like her more with Jason, though, even though that also meant the end of Journey. A lot of people love to hate Carly, even the people who say that they love her. I love Carly myself, but I agree, the crazy Carly storyline was very strong, Jennifer gave a wonderful go at a storyline that she could have just gone through the motions with, but she didn't. She gave it everything that she had, and it really made me miss her, because by then I knew she was gone. I look to touch upon the Ric/Sonny relationship in this story, too, as you've seen. But yesterday, when they hugged, I cheered.

Story-

Quartermaine Mansion, Interior-

Lois sat on the couch in the main social area of the Quartermaine mansion. There was always that choking feeling of oppression that the house brought with it, now even more so without Lila there to keep her family in line. Truthfully, though, for the most part the Q's had managed to stay their tongues, only in spirit of the woman that they all knew was responsible for them even remaining a family. If it wasn't for Lila, if some lesser woman had married Edward all those years ago, then Edward would be alone, and the family wouldn't have any of the stability that it had, which was saying a lot, since the Quartermaine's tended to be the opposite of stability.

She wouldn't have even stayed if it wasn't for her daughter. If Brook's father had been in any other sort of family, Lois would have had no problem leaving her now grown daughter with her father for a little while, even if it meant being apart from her for a few months. But that wasn't the way that it worked out. Brook's dad wasn't just anyone, he was Edward Ashton, Ned to some, Eddie to her on some occasions. Lois knew in her heart that Ned was a good person, a good father, but Ned also had a lot of faults, and the biggest fault was the way that he allowed his family to constantly use him and pull him away from his own family. Ultimately, that was one of the core reasons why their relationship was destroyed, why Lois took the baby and ran, because she didn't feel like she was a part of Ned's life. Sometimes, Lois even wondered if Brook was truly a part of Ned's life, or if he was merely coddling both his daughter and his ex-wife. Those thoughts were frequently less than pleasant, and she tried to avoid thinking about them because Lois always wanted to believe the best in people. How else would she have a friend like Sonny?

And that was another reason why Lois stayed around… because of Sonny, or, more specifically, because of Sonny's grown up son. Brook hadn't told Lois anything, a fact of life that she had forced herself to grow accustomed to once Brook finally hit that age where she no longer looked to her mother as a friend, but rather as public enemy number one, but that didn't mean that Lois didn't understand her daughter. True, there were parts of Brook that made no sense to Lois, but she was sure the same could be said of her own mother when Lois was that age. But there was one thing that Lois did understand about Brook Lynn, and that was her heart. It may have taken Lois a little while to actually see it, but once she did, it was impossible to miss. Her daughter had fallen for Damian Corinthos, and fallen for him hard. She thought she could hide it from her family, but she failed at every turn, at least when it came to Lois. Of course, Lois said nothing, knowing full well that anything she did or said could be seen as an attack, and that could push Brook away from her even further, something that Lois was not quite ready to risk.

It wasn't hard to understand why Brook had fallen for Damian, at least not in Lois's eyes. He had a lot of what made his father such an attractive person, depth that nobody could hope to understand but the few who he opened up his heart to. Sonny had done it with Lois, and maybe Damian would do it for Brook. Plus, he was a piano player, a good one at that. If Lois was still in the music business, which she was, but at a much lesser degree, she would have seen what she could do about hiring Damian for a few songs. It wouldn't take up much of his time, and he could do it whenever he wanted, they would work with his schedule. A fool's dream, though. And, in some ways, so was Brook's hankering for Damian's heart. If he was anything like his father, and Lois thought that he was, once his heart belonged to someone, it was going to stay with them for a long time, until something finally happened to push them away. Sonny would still be with Lily, had she not been killed in that horrible accident. And Brenda… that just went to all hell. Lois didn't like Carly, never would, but that didn't mean that she didn't see the attraction that Sonny had to her. Damian was like that, he loved Maxie, and his heart would stay with Maxie for a long time.

"Don't you have something better to do with your time?" Tracy's shrill voice broke the silence. Lois wished that Tracy's voice had never been heard. Ever. "I'm sure they have some going out of business sale at that cheap place where you get your press on fingernails, there is no way in the world that people could be nearly as gaudy as you…"

"Lila always liked my nails…"

Tracy stopped and glared at Lois. "It's not good to lie about the dead."

Lois rolled her eyes, "Who said that I was lying, Tracy? Your mother accepted me for who I was, something that you could never do…"

"If my mother had one fault, and only one fault, it was the way that she was so accepting of the people around her, people who had no reason for being around my family. People like you, and like Courtney, and the Spencers'…"

"Lila wasn't a horrible old woman with nothing better to do and no way of making herself look better except by making other people look and feel worse by comparison. That, my dear ex-mother-in-law, is entirely your game."

"And I'm a damned good player at that game, probably the best."

"You know, there are times when I feel sorry for you, Tracy, I truly do. You have the love of your children, for reasons that I will never, ever, understand, but you don't accept them, you never have."

"I love my children…"

"Maybe, but why did Dillon leave you? Why is Dillon living with Jason and Courtney, right next to Sonny and his best friend? Because you threatened to strangle away any sort of individuality that he had inside of him until he became the person that you wanted to be. Your family did the same thing to Ned…"

"What are you blabbing about?" Tracy asked, hiding the pain that she felt when Lois mentioned the way that she failed her youngest child. That would probably always be considered Tracy's biggest failure, something that she knew about, but would never admit, because showing weakness was very unbecoming of a woman of her class and stature. "Have you been dipping into the bar again? Am I going to need Alice to lock it up?"

"You know exactly what I'm talking about, Tracy. Ned was such a different person when I met him, he was kind, he was selfless, he was everything that I had hoped to find in a man, and then I found out who he really was, that he wasn't Eddie Maine, that he was someone else completely, and I still thought that I could find the person that I loved underneath everything else that he was… I truly believed that in my heart, but it just wasn't possible…"

"You're in the music business, find yourself a good violin player, because nobody in this room gives a damn about your sob story…"

"Why do I even bother trying to tell you anything?"

"Because you're as stubborn as a mule, and, you have the attention span of a goldfish. Wait a few seconds and you'll try again…"

Lois got up from the couch, placing the magazine back on the table. She would have smacked Tracy across the face, she thought about it so many times, but kept herself in check because Tracy was her elder, and she was still, in some roundabout way, family. Plus, she would not soil the spirit of Lila by doing something like that against her daughter. Lila was the classiest woman that Lois had ever met, she wouldn't bring down that spirit, especially not in her own house. "One day, Tracy, one day you might realize all the mistakes that you've made, and nobody is going to listen to you when you finally decide that you feel badly about them, because nobody is going to believe that you ever had something that could even remotely be considered a heart."

Tracy rolled her eyes at Lois and watched as the woman made her way out into the foyer. When nobody else was around, Tracy moved over to the bar and poured herself a glass of water, looking at her own reflection in the glass, moving with the swaying flow of the water. Lois said that one day she might realize the mistakes that she made, what Lois didn't know was that Tracy had always been aware of them, from the beginning until that moment, and she would never forget them.

Corinthos Household-

Sonny had only recently gotten back to the Penthouse after his short meeting with Ric. Sonny believed that he was doing the best thing that he could do, to help protect his son and his future, but there was still a part of him that wondered if there was even the slightest change that his little brother could turn around and bite him in the ass. Ric was better now, Sonny openly admitted that to people who asked. He wasn't so consumed by his feelings for revenge and vengeance, his jealousy. But Sonny wasn't a fool, he knew that it was still there, that, beneath the surface, Ric still wanted more out of their relationship than Sonny was willing to ever give him. Ric wanted something that Sonny could never give him. Ric wanted a relationship with Adella, their mother, but that was beyond impossible. She was gone, gone for good. Did Sonny feel bad about the fact that their mother had picked him over Ric? Yes, of course, but Sonny was so young when it happened that he didn't really have a choice in the matter. And, if he did, would he really have chosen to let her stay with Ric? Where would that have left him? Did he even want to know?

The man gave very little recognition to Leticia when she came back into the house, even to his own son. He smiled at Morgan, his baby who he thought he would never be able to have in his life, that he thought he wasn't worthy of having, but there were more pressing things on Sonny's mind, like Durant, the man that could easily bring Sonny and Jason down. It wasn't something that he liked to admit, but it was true. Durant was ruthless, and he pulled out all the stops. People who thought that they had a better grasp on their life than Sonny had been taken out by him. He was one of the most feared individuals in the country for mobsters, and now he was on Sonny's territory, with the expressed desire to take Sonny out. If nothing else, Durant's presence bought Sonny a little bit of time. Nobody would even think of coming to Port Charles while Durant made base there, the risks were too great. He knew of almost all the families and people in the business, if he didn't know all of them already, he would find out the minute they caused the smallest blip on his radar. Sadly, for Sonny and his family, Damian had been one of those people to cause a blip.

Sonny was surprised to see his wife walk in a few minutes after Leticia and Morgan. "I thought you came in with them…"

Carly shook her head, "I ended up having a run in with someone, it took me a few minutes to get rid of him."

Sonny thought about what she was saying, or rather, what she wasn't saying. A run in with someone? A him? "Carly, who did you see?"

"Your brother…"

The man let out a small sigh of relief. He had feared that it was Durant, that Durant had managed to get to his wife the same way that he had gotten to Damian, and, to a lesser extent, Michael. Sonny's middle child was still acting hurt and dejected by the people around him, but he was at school, he was relatively safe. "What did Ric say?"

"A lot of things… he talked about how he wants to be forgiven for everything that he's done."

"He does."

"Yeah, well, I'm not in a very forgiving mood right now, or ever." Carly walked further into the house and stood by her husband. "He also said something else… he said that I needed to tell you how much I hate him. Not that you don't know… it's just… the way that he said it, Sonny, it makes me wonder if he knows something that we don't know, like he's planning something that will hurt us again… should I have Jason watch him and make sure that nothing happens?"

Sonny shook his head, "You don't need to worry about my brother, Carly."

Carly was surprised, "Sonny, I know you want to believe that he's over everything that he's felt about you, but he probably isn't. He festered hatred inside of him for so long, it doesn't just go away when you snap your fingers. Believe me, I know… I did the same thing with my mother. It took me years to finally make peace with myself. Ric hasn't had that much time."

"He's not going to hurt us…"

"How do you know that?"

"Because I asked him to help…"

Carly felt a small part of herself break inside. Sonny was asking for Ric's help? "Why would you do something like that, Sonny? Why would you go to someone like Ric, someone who spent so much time making our lives miserable, someone who caused us so much pain, who enjoyed it? Why would you go to him for help?"

"Because I didn't have a choice!" Sonny replied quickly, hating the way that he felt like he was under attack. "Carly, believe me, if there was anything else I could do, I would, but you just need to trust me right now… I'm doing this for my family, for you, for my sons, for everyone."

Carly turned around, "I don't know, Sonny. I don't know if I can trust your judgment if you're doing something like this, if you're not telling me anything how do I know that I can feel safe with the decisions that you're making? You could ruin our entire family… and I don't want you to even think about taking that risk."

Sonny reached over and touched his wife's hand as gently as possible. He was half-surprised to see her pull it away as soon as the contact was made, but not completely shocked. Carly had a way about her that made her act stubborn when she didn't get what she wanted. Sighing, Sonny realized that if he was going to ease his wife's pain, he would need to do something that he rarely did, he would need to give her a little bit of insight as to what was going on. Not a lot, but enough. "Carly… I need Ric to help me because… because John Durant is in Port Charles."

Carly turned around, "The John Durant?" She had heard of him many times, Sonny talked about him a few times, but he was almost always on the news. Always talking about his latest conquest in the war on crime.

"Yeah, the John Durant. If I have any chance of coming out of this without a scratch, I need to have as many people on my side as possible, even if it means trusting people that I might not trust normally, like my brother." It wasn't something that Sonny enjoyed admitting, but it was the truth. He had to take risks, and he never was very good at taking risks.


	27. Love and Protection

Zoo-

Michael tended to have many faces that he wore at various times. Sometimes they were sad faces, sometimes they were happy faces. Most of the time they were happy as, on the whole, Michael Morgan Corinthos managed to be completely content with the way his life was going, but, like all people in general, there were times when Michael wasn't happy, when he realized that things weren't nearly as good as he wanted to believe they were.

But any of the sadness inside of Michael's heart evaporated the moment that his Aunt and Uncle told him that they were going to take him and his little brother to the zoo. Michael loved seeing all the animals, and he enjoyed going to the zoo as often as he could, because he wasn't allowed to have animals in the penthouse, even Courtney's beloved pet, Rosie, wasn't allowed inside the building. A part of Michael didn't really understand that, since his father owned the building, why couldn't he set the rules? But, as with each time that Michael tried to question the authority of Sonny, which only happened on rare occasions, he was beat back and given a look that made him feel like he had done something that was incredibly wrong. At times it made him wonder if the advice that his big brother had given him was true, the things that Damian had said about trying to be the person that Michael wanted to be instead of trying to be the person that other people wanted Michael to be. But who did he want to be? And who did they want him to be? Those were questions that a nine year old boy should not have asked himself, no matter how mature he may have been.

However, none of those questions were even remotely near the top of his mind, instead, he was looking almost entirely at the animals that were littered around. He had seen the monkeys, safely protected by the Jason, just in case they got any ideas as to throwing things that they shouldn't have thrown. He saw the hippos as they ate, amazed at how much they could eat, and how ugly their teeth were. Morgan was also having a good time. Sometimes being carried by either Jason or Courtney, or being in the stroller that he loved so much. Leticia was not with them, which probably made her feel good as well, giving her a much needed breather. Even someone who loved Michael and Morgan as much as she did had to have a few hours where she wasn't being called to fit their every whim.

"The new baby panda was so tiny, Uncle Jason!" Michael exclaimed as he walked nearest to his Uncle Jason, who was probably his best friend as well, and the person that Michael secretly idolized the most. There were times when Michael was genuinely afraid of his father, but never with Jason. Jason was always soft and kind around him, never getting angry, never making him feel like he was doing something wrong. Sonny may have been Michael's father, and Michael loved Sonny dearly, but Jason… Jason was the person that he would go to first in case he needed someone to help him. "I can't believe how big it's going to get when it grows up."

"You know, in a few years, people are going to be saying the same thing about you," Jason replied as he looked down at Michael, his red hair and freckled face beaming with youthful vigor. Instantly, Jason's mind flashed back to some of the most pleasant memories that he had, the ones of him holding Michael in his arms, reading to him until he slept. Jason snapped out of his momentary flashback, the pleasant feelings still swelling up inside of him. And then he tried to imagine who Michael would become, what he would look like in ten years, when he was grown up, a young man instead of a little boy. Would Jason even get the chance to see him like that? He hoped so. "That's what baby's do, they grow up…"

"I'm not a baby!" Michael replied in protest. He was nine years old, that was far from being a baby. He was even old enough to reach the cookie jar without needing anything to help him reach it, although he did spill things when he tried to make himself a bowl of cereal from time to time, but only when the jug of milk was nearly fully. "Morgan's a baby, he can barely talk!"

Courtney, who was pushing the stroller carrying the baby in question, smiled as she continued to move next to Jason and Michael. As much time as she enjoyed spending with Michael and Morgan, she knew that Jason got more enjoyment out of it, because he had a connection with Michael that nobody could touch, not even her. Jason didn't think of himself as Michael's father anymore, although that hurt him sometimes, but he would always have those fatherly instincts, he would always act in Michael's best interests. That was one of the reasons why Courtney wanted to give Jason a child, because she knew that, above all else, Jason would be a wonderful father. Sadly, things were not meant to be that way, and it was partly because of her. Yes, it was nice to know that Lorenzo was dead, hopefully in hell where he belonged, but it didn't fix her problem, it didn't make it more probable that Courtney would have a child, Jason's child. They could adopt, and she had no problem with it, but she always wanted him to be able to have a child of his own, a child with Jason's amazingly blue eyes.

Morgan, hearing his name, looked over at his brother and made a cooing sound. He didn't know what was going on, his young mind still too underdeveloped to truly comprehend everything that was happening, but he knew that the people around him were having a good time, and that made it easier for him to have a good time as well. He was having one, although he had no way of showing it other than the constant smiles and laughs. He especially laughed when he saw the penguins, the way that they waddled was particularly amusing to the young baby.

Courtney knew that there was always a chance that the boys could get cold, so, she made sure that she kept them warm, both in clothes and in drink. "Hey, Michael, do you want another cup of apple cider? I'm going to get one for your brother…" Morgan was too young to hold it, but she could put the drink in his bottle and wait for it to cool down enough so it didn't burn his tongue or his sensitive hands.

"Can I get cocoa instead?" Michael begged. "Please?" If there was one thing that he knew how to do, one thing that would find a way to break down even the iron defenses of Sonny Corinthos, it was beg. And, everyone was an easier target than Sonny, if he could get Sonny to submit, the battle was already mostly won.

Courtney laughed, running her hand through his crimson hued hair, watching as his eyes lit up when he knew he had won the fight for cocoa. "All right, but I'm not getting you a big cup, your mother said not to spoil you too much." She glanced over to her husband, who also looked amused, a look that he mostly reserved for Michael, although there were rare times when the other people in Jason's life could get a genuinely lighthearted smile. "Jason, do you want anything to drink?"

Jason shook his head, "No, I'm good. Michael, are you going to go with Courtney?"

Michael looked up at Jason, "Can I stay with you?"

"Of course you can, buddy, you know how much I love spending time with you, why would I say no to you wanting to spend more time with me?" But what would happen to Jason when Michael finally did stop wanting to spend so much time with him? The age was fast approaching. Jason didn't like to think of the future, he liked to stay in the present, but there were times when he had to worry about it, when the thoughts were just too much for him to avoid.

"You're not mad, are you, Aunt Courtney?" Michael wondered. He loved his aunt too, but there was something that he wanted to discuss with Jason, privately. It was the first time that he actually had enough downtime to merit the conversation, something that he had been thinking about for some time.

"No, honey, it's fine. I'll take your brother." Maybe a part of Courtney enjoyed having people look at her and think that the baby was hers, maybe it helped her get over what she had lost, if only a little, but any sort of ease to her pain was something that she was glad to have, because now, even so long after it had happened, the decisions that she made, the fate that she had resigned herself to, it still stung Courtney so deeply that she thought she would never be able to recover.

Jason watched his wife take the baby towards one of the kiosks that gave out the refreshments. There weren't that many people at the zoo, since it was still in the wintertime, but that was not something that Jason minded. He didn't like being around a lot of people, because most of them knew of him, and they thought that they knew him, but they didn't. The Zoo wasn't in Port Charles, but his name still got around, one of the downsides to being arrested so often, even though he was never convicted of anything. Leather jacket safely secured on his shoulders, Jason felt nothing of the coldness that swirled around them. He was fine, and he was quiet, but that was how he normally was.

Michael knew that it was going to be he who struck up the conversation with Jason. Jason was the type of person who would almost always wait out the problem that Michael was having, never asking what was wrong unless it was truly something that needed to be addressed. Jason was the only one who would always give him the time that he needed to sort out things for himself, to decide when he wanted to get help from anyone. That time had come, and it was Jason who Michael sought to get the help that he needed from. "Uncle Jason… can I ask you something?"

"You can always ask me anything…"

"Why do people lie… or keep secrets from other people?"

Jason knew that Michael wasn't as oblivious to the things that went on around him as the adults in his life wished he would be, but the question still caught him by surprise. "Michael… why are you asking me this?"

"Because you're the only one who I trust to give me a real answer," Michael replied. "You're the most honest person that I know. You're the one who will never lie to me, because you never have. Even the little lies that people think I won't notice, or won't care about… I do notice, I do care about the lies."

"Sometimes people need to lie to protect you, Michael. You're strong, stronger than we think you are, but there are still things that you need to be protected from, people that you need to be protected from. You're way too young to be living the life that you would be living if you were older. You're a kid, you need to think about having fun with life, because… because it's going to be over before any of us realize it."

"Daddy and Damian didn't tell me what was wrong yesterday, remember?" Jason was there, and he didn't tell Michael anything either, but he was doing it because his father didn't want him to, and that was it. "If I ask you to tell me… will you?"

Jason turned away, wondering the same question. But he found his answer, when the words came out, "Someone that might try and make things bad for your father and your brother is around, like Mr. Alcazar. But you don't have to worry about it, Michael, because we're going to take care of it."

"They kept it from me because they didn't want me to worry about it?"

"Yeah."

"Because they love me?"

"Because they love you that much, Michael."

"Do you love me?"

Jason nodded, "Michael, you know how much you mean to me, of course I love you."

"Good…" Michael hugged Jason's waist. "Don't tell anyone, but I trust you the most out of anyone that I know."

Jason grinned, "Your secret is safe with me, buddy…"

Kelly's-

Lucky Spencer walked into Kelly's, a place that he had been many times, so many times in fact that he had memorized the menu a dozen times over. He loved it there, but he also had grown tired of the place, having been there so many times, having lived there a few times. But, when someone called him and told him that she needed to meet him at Kelly's, Lucky couldn't deny the simple request, especially when it came from the person who would always be his first love.

Elizabeth had called Lucky, needing to get his help in a situation that concerned her now extended family, and she needed to wait until he had time to see her, she could wait. Elizabeth was nothing if not patient. When Lucky walked into Kelly's, Elizabeth waved him over to the stools by the counter. She smiled as soon as he got close enough, "Thank you for coming…"

"I couldn't say no to you, not you…"

She blushed slightly, "I need your help…"

"Yeah, I got that from the message you left my phone."

"I didn't interrupt anything, did I?"

Lucky shook his head, "Nothing important, it's just bad form to answer the phone while you're on duty for calls that don't involve the job, especially right now since John Durant is around…"

"Yeah… he's the reason why I want you to help me out… I need you to watch him for me."

"Elizabeth… I'm sure Ric is strong enough to keep Durant from taking his job out from under him. I know I don't like the guy very much, but I know that he's smarter than that."

"It isn't Ric, Lucky… it's Damian. John Durant… I don't know… I think he wants to strike at Damian because of who he is… I don't want to see everything that he's worked his whole life for just destroyed because of one person who nurses a vendetta against his father…"

"Does that remind you of someone?"

Elizabeth lowered her eyes, "That's not fair."

"I'm sorry," Lucky knew that he had gone too far, although he still had a point. He placed his hand over Elizabeth's, a gesture completely plutonic in nature. "Don't worry, I'll do what I can."


	28. Fancy Dinners

Samsonlove- The true merit of an actor is if you can learn to love to hate them, as most people do with John Durant. Yes, people hate him, but they're supposed to hate him, that's who he is. Corbin does evil very well, and I for one am glad that he's still on the show, because the show needs a true villain as opposed to the sort of gray area villains that they've had as of late, such as Lorenzo and Ric, who eventually get redeemed. True enough, Luke and Tracy together was a wonderful move, although, as with anything involving Luke, the moment that Tony Geary decides that he wants to take his vacation and then poof everything is dropped. I hate that.

Story-

Port Charles-

"You know, you didn't have to do this…"

"Yes, I did."

"No, you didn't…"

"Carly," Sonny said as he stared into his wife's beautiful eyes, "I had to do this." He reached over and grabbed her hand gently, bringing to his lowered head and then kissed her hand softly, "Honestly, how many times do we have where we can get some time alone? Where Michael or Morgan aren't around?"

"We just had a party on New Years Eve, remember?" Carly asked. It was a very fun party, one where she had the chance to be with all the people that meant the world to her, one where she didn't have to worry about the children. That wasn't to say that Carly didn't love her children, nothing could be further from the truth, but there were moments when she needed to be alone with her husband and with other adults, when she wasn't being asked questions that had no answers, question after question after question. Michael loved to ask questions. In some small way, Carly hoped that his little brother did not inherit the same trait, even though it showed that Michael was one of the brightest boys in his school. Let the teachers field his many questions, or, in some cases, his older brother.

"Yeah, but when we had that party we weren't alone…"

"We're not alone now," Carly said as he motioned to the small crowd in the same restaurant. Some of them, a lot of them, were looking at her and her husband. They always got a few glances, wherever they went. Sometimes it was because the two of them just looked like they belonged in such a place of class and recognition. Sometimes it was because they didn't look like they belonged in such a place. Sonny, the boy who came from nothing and grew up to have everything, Carly, the girl who came into town looking for revenge against a mother who gave her daughter up because she didn't think that she had any other choice. With that kind of dysfunction it was only obvious why they ended up together.

"You're right, we're not alone right now," Sonny didn't mind the leering so much. Let people think what they wanted to think about himself and his wife. Even though some of them may have known what was going on it didn't mean that they understood it. If Sonny allowed himself to be more open about the things he did and the reasons why, people wouldn't be so quick to judge him, but Sonny would only do that if he actually cared about the way that other people saw him, and Sonny didn't give a damn about the way that other people saw him. They didn't matter to him, all that mattered to him was staying in the good graces of the people who he cared about, and that was his family. His family still loved Sonny, that was all he needed. "But, you and me… we're the only two people in this restaurant that matter to me…"

"I really hope you don't mean that, or I'm going to get offended…"

Carly heard the voice and she rolled her eyes, "Maybe we can get a reservation at another restaurant here… one that doesn't have such an open policy on admittance…"

Lois looked over at Carly, "You look wonderful in that dress, Carly. It would look even better if you would lose a few pounds…"

"Lois…" Sonny gave a cautionary glance up to his best friend. "You know how much I love you, but that doesn't mean that I'm going to let you insult my wife."

"You just got told…"

"And you," Sonny looked over at Carly, "you should show a little respect for someone that you know means so much to me. I swear, both of you should just get it over with and fight to the death or something."

"I'm not going to fight her," Carly remarked, "look at those fingernails of hers, they could tear into me like I was nothing!"

"That would give me a lot of pleasure, Carly, more than you could ever hope to experience yourself, but, out of respect for my best friend here, I would never do something like that… or take you away from your beautiful children." That last comment was not one that was laced with any sort of sarcasm or ill intent. Lois had seen both Michael and Morgan, and they were beautiful children, only because of Sonny's influence, either in their makeup or their upbringing. "I can only assume that you're both here because you've managed to get a momentary breather from Michael and Morgan?"

"Courtney and Jason took the boys to the Zoo for a little while." Sonny told her. "Michael loves it when he gets to see all the new animals that have been born, or the new animals that they brought in since the last time he went, and Morgan's getting to that age where he can realize more things, so we figured we would let him expand his mind…"

"And if you managed to get the baby out of your hair for a few hours, then that's just an added perk," Lois snickered softly. "Trust me, Sonny, there were many times when my Brookie was growing up that I left her with my parents for a bit and just went out and did my own thing…"

Carly couldn't resist the urge to say something. She really did have such little self-reserve when it came to dealing with Lois. That was to say that she had none at all. "Street corners are pretty hard to resist…"

"I'm sure you would know," was Lois's quick retort. Both of the women had their wit at its sharpest when they were around one another, claws ready to strike.

"Enough…" Sonny groaned. "I wanted to have a nice evening with my wife…"

"Hear that, Lois? Maybe you should leave…"

"I would, but I have a person that I need to meet here."

"This isn't a single's club, Lois," Carly shot back. "Although I don't know if anyone who goes to such places would even give you a second glance. So, who lost the bet this time at the poker game?"

"That… would be me," Ned came up and wrapped an arm around Lois's shoulder. "I figured I would give my ex-wife a nice dinner where we could talk about Brook without the constant chatter of my family. We haven't had one of those yet. Thanks for meeting me here…"

"How could I resist?" Lois wondered. "You didn't really give me a choice…"

"You always had a choice, Lois, you know that."

"I can make the choice for you both," Carly announced. Lois and Ned were far from her favorite people, putting them both together, again, was just like jabbing a hot poking iron in her eye, tormenting her slowly, but nevertheless thoroughly. "Why don't you let Sonny and I eat before we both lose our appetites."

"I'll talk to you later, Sonny," Lois leaned over and gave her best friend a gentle peck on the cheek, mostly just to piss Carly off, but she also loved Sonny dearly, so it wasn't the only reason.

Carly swirled the drink that was in her hand a little bit, "I might need a few more of these now. I've got a splitting headache."

Sonny shook his head, "You know if you and Lois would get along better, it would make my life a whole lot easier."

"I could say the same thing about you and your father…" Carly stopped herself a moment later, knowing what she had said and how he would react to it. "Sonny, I'm sorry. Just, being around that woman makes me so angry that I forget what I'm saying to the people that I'm with. I know that you and Mike have a lot of issues that you need to work out…"

"Don't, Carly," Sonny put his hand up. "Please, just don't. What's done is done, nobody was hurt by it. Can we please just have this nice meal together?"

Carly smiled, but the smile quickly turned into something else. "Sonny, can I ask you something?"

"When has not being able to ask me something ever stopped you from asking it anyway?"

"Are you doing this because you want to… or are you doing it because a part of you worries about the fact that this could be your last chance to actually have a dinner with me, in case John Durant does manage to find something on you that will send you away?"

"We've been through this before…"

"And I know you better than you want to believe I know you, Sonny Corinthos. You act like everything is going to be all right, but beneath that cool exterior rests the heart and soul of someone who is more than a little afraid to get burned in the process. Don't hide your feelings from me, Sonny, I can take it."

Sonny looked away for a second, "Maybe I am afraid of it, Carly, but that doesn't mean that it has to be like that. I'm here because I love you, but that won't change, regardless of what happens."

Carly felt the sincerity in his words, it made her whole world a little less scary, "I feel the same way about you, Sonny. The same way."

At the other end of the restaurant, Lois and Ned couldn't help but look back at the couple who was smack dab in the center. Even if they weren't, they would be the center of attention. Lois would say that it was because Carly wouldn't let herself be anything but the center, needing the spotlight to be placed on her at every possible moment, because she craved it, the attention that she was denied as a child.

"Are you going to be all right?" Ned asked as he took a sip from his water and looked at the menu that had been given to them. "Do you need me to go and buy you some boxing gloves?"

"Violence never solves anything," Lois replied, her eyes still caught at Carly, the icy glare of death being given, Lois hoping that it would have some desired results. Sadly, Carly did not fall into a catatonic state. Lois did not have powers great enough to ward of Carly's evil. "If it did, I would have taken care of her a long time ago."

"Sonny seems to think that violence is the answer to all his problems… just look at the trail of bodies."

"Ned…"

"Sorry. You don't like Carly, I don't like Sonny, or Carly for that matter, but I really don't like Sonny. It just fascinates me the way that you can be such good friends with someone like him."

"I've told you time and time again that there is more to Sonny than you're trying to see. It isn't his fault that you're some spoiled little rich boy who can't help but see through the veil that you have over your eyes."

"So now you're saying that I'm ignorant?"

"I've always said that you were ignorant, and you ignore the problems that you should be dealing with…"

"Give me one example."

"All right, your mother."

"What about her?"

"The way that she treats both me and your daughter, Ned. Don't you think that we deserve a little more respect from Tracy than that? She makes us feel like we're entirely unwelcome in that house… and it's hard to ignore feelings like that. Really hard."

"You know mother…"

"And I know that you never want to grow a spine and speak up against her. She really must have done a number on you when you were in the womb, because she certainly didn't give a damn about you while you spent all those years in boarding school."

"My mother always loved me…"

"Keep telling yourself that, Eddie. It's probably the only way that you can look at her and not be repulsed."

"At least I have a relationship with my mother that remotely mirrors something related to kinship… unlike some other mothers that I know who barely even know their own children…"

"You'd better not be talking about me."

"Are there any other mothers in this conversation? You don't know Brook Lynn at all."

"And you do?"

"I didn't get the chance, because of what you did, the way that you put yourself and our daughter as far away from me and my family as you could."

Lois threw the napkin on the table, eyes welling up with tears, and, without saying anything, she headed out the door.


	29. Halt

Samsonlove- You'll remember a few chapters back I had some moment between Ned and his daughter. It wasn't big, although it was the title of the chapter. There will be more moments like that, I have one written that will come up eventually, and the events that are placed in motion below are going to have a way of spinning out towards the Ashton family and their connections to one another. Durant was supposed to die, but they decided to keep him around for the sake of the story. I, for one, am quite happy about that, because, as you know, I love John Durant. Yes, he's evil, but that's the point. That is why I love him.

Story-

Park, Gazebo-

Maxie waited as she was instructed to do, unknowing of what was going to happen, but feeling that it was something that was good regardless. She had met up with him shortly after school had ended for both of them. He had even told her about Durant meeting up with him again, and bringing for the knowledge that he had about Elias and his past. Maxie did what she could for her boyfriend, assuring him that everything was going to be all right, that everything was going to get solved and that nobody that he loved was going to get hurt in the process. She wanted him to believe it, but she knew that he wouldn't, because it was hard for someone to believe something that another person didn't believe. And Maxie didn't necessarily believe that it was true. She didn't even know if she wanted everything to turn out all right for Damian's family. It may have made her a bad person… but didn't they do bad things? Yes, Sonny was a good person, kind of, he wasn't very mean to her, ever. He always smiled, was always polite and made sure that she knew that she could always come to him when he needed something because of the connection that she shared with Damian, but so what. She also knew for a fact that Sonny was responsible for things that people thought he was. Maxie hadn't been let into the world that Damian found himself immersed in all that much, but she had seen enough. She had been at the center of one of the worst moments of her life, she had been used as bait to kill her boyfriend, and in the process Zander was almost killed as well. It was on that day that Maxie found out that the things that Sonny did weren't necessarily things that he did only when he had the best of intentions. She had seen the bodies of the guards that were on the ground. She had tried to take those images out of her head, but she had failed. They weren't that hard to feel sympathetic about, though. After all, if those men got what they wanted, Maxie and Damian would be dead, and so would Sonny, Jason and Damian's grandparents. In the end, that violence was necessary, but only that violence… and maybe what had happened to Alcazar.

The point that Maxie was trying to make with herself was that maybe it wouldn't have been that bad for her if Sonny and Jason did manage to go away, get put away from the things that they did. A horrible thought, one that she didn't particularly enjoy having, but she couldn't help but have it anyway. She wanted her boyfriend to be safe, to be happy, and she knew that he would be safer if his life wasn't always in peril because of the company that he kept, the family that he couldn't pull himself away from even if he wanted to. Plus, it would make things easier for her. Mac would be much more accepting of Damian in the end of John did manage to put away the people around Damian that Mac didn't trust, which happened to be Sonny and Jason. In some ways, Maxie was being selfish, she knew that, she couldn't deny it, but she also couldn't deny the fact that, while she may have been selfish, she didn't really regret it. Did that make her a bad person? Maybe a little, but, to Maxie, it also made her a person who just wanted things to be all right, and things would never be all right if they kept on going the way that they were.

She mulled the possibilities in her head, trying to take the good and the bad. One thing kept on flashing in her mind: the happiness factor. The most important thing that Damian needed, he needed to be happy, he needed something to keep him smiling, because if he didn't have it then he would never be able to do what he wanted to do. If Damian didn't have the support of the people around him, herself included, then he would falter. They were like his security net… and they were important to Maxie because of that as well. Even though it might have made them safer, it wouldn't have made him happier, she knew that. He loved his father, he loved Jason, he even had a fondness for the people that they hired. If all those people were taken out of his life, then it would crush him. It would slowly eat at him until he was gone. Until the Damian that she knew, the Damian that she fell in love with was just a thing of the past, completely unable to return. Maxie didn't want that.

He saw her sitting on the bench that was inside the gazebo, the soft lights that lined the outside of the construct brightly burning in the night sky, the yellow reflecting, shining off of her blonde hair. When he was younger he would have never thought that he would have fallen for someone who looked like Maxie. He had always pictured himself falling in love with someone that was more like him. There weren't many Caucasian females in East LA, and even the ones who were there tended to shy away from the people that were around them, people like him and his family. Cultural melting pot… that was what America was supposed to be to everyone, but, in the end, it wasn't nearly as pretty as it looked on paper. No, it was far from that, it was extremely ugly.

Still, Damian was happy with the person that he had fallen in love with, and why wouldn't he be? He wasn't going to let the color of Maxie's skin, or her race get in the way of how he felt. It wasn't like he was mandated to keep it in the 'family.' Adella, his paternal grandmother, a woman who he would never meet despite the urge that he had to know her, had done it with Mike, it was a part of who he was. He wasn't limited, biologically, when it came to race. Why then should he have been limited socially by race? There wasn't an answer that anyone could give him that he would accept, because a good answer didn't exist. Anyone who thought that people should allow themselves to be shaped by something so stupid as structure, which wasn't even structure if a person looked at it was not the kind of person that Damian wanted to be.

"I come bearing gifts," Damian took a few steps up into the gazebo. They were alone, just the two of them and the clear Port Charles night, sitting underneath the gazebo. It held a lot of memories for him, and for her as well.

"They smell great…"

"Well, when my grandfather gets a request from me to cook up something special for me and my girlfriend, he tends to listen. He's good like that, always willing and able to help me out when I need it."

"I'll have to thank Mike the next time that I see him," Maxie replied as she moved her head up, the light illuminating her pale but beautiful eyes. Even before she knew that she would be involved with Mike on a more personal level, Maxie had always cared about him. He was a good person, someone that she knew would be there for people when they needed a crying shoulder.

Damian sat down next to her, placing the food on the ground, still kept in the containers and held in the plastic bag with Kelly's logo emblazoned upon it. He placed his hand on her knee gently, "I'm sure that he would say that you being with me is thanks enough…"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

He smiled, "Just that my family knows how much you mean to me, how much I love being with you. They all love the fact that you're here for me whenever I need someone to talk with, someone who isn't tied directly with the people who I'm related to, someone who doesn't… who isn't involved with everything that goes on around me."

"Should you really be talking to the daughter of the police commissioner about things that happen around Sonny and Jason?" Maxie asked, not trying to sound rude, but really just needing an answer. Would she lie to her father to protect her boyfriend? Probably. If he asked her if Damian was the one who killed Lorenzo, she would, but that was another circumstance, once that was completely out of Damian's control. If it were something else, maybe then she would have a crisis of faith.

"It doesn't have to be about that, though. It can be about anything, and I know that you'll listen, I know that you won't tell me what I want to hear, that you'll be honest with me. Sometimes I think that the people around me, my family, they can't treat me like I'm not one of the children. I'm almost as old as my Aunt Courtney, I'm in college, I'm an intern, but they still all look at me like I'm Sonny's child, and that I'm something of an outsider. In a lot of ways it's true, but I still can't help but not want to feel like I'm being punished for something that I have no control over."

"You know that if they need you for anything, they'll ask, right?"

"Of course I know…"

"Good," Maxie placed a hand on his cheek before she pulled away. "Can we eat now, I'm starving?"

"Yes, Maxie, we can eat now." Damian dug into the bag and pulled out the twin containers, both labeled. "Here, this one's for you… I figured I should feed you before you started your shift tonight, that way you don't have to worry about eating that hospital food, or at least attempting to digest it…"

Maxie opened the container and instantly the smell of the cheeseburger filled her nose, mixed in with the crisp smell of the fries, sending her into an instant state of mindless bliss. "I thought you said that Sonny and Carly were out for dinner, and that Michael and Morgan were with Jason and Courtney at the zoo…"

"They are."

"So then why are we eating here?"

"Because I don't want to take the chance of someone coming around if we're at my house. Besides, you know what your father would say if he ever found out that you were inside the home of Sonny Corinthos. Mac barely tolerates me right now because I try and keep you away from the life that he thinks is just going to end up killing you, but if I betray that trust, do something that will make me seem like I'm putting you in danger, then he never will forgive me. I want your father on my side, Maxie. I really do."

"So do I," she replied, taking a few of the fries and sticking them in her mouth, after dousing them with the packets of ketchup that she had received. They never gave her enough.

"Besides, this spot has a lot of memories for the two of us… doesn't it?" He looked at her, placing the box on the bench again. "I know how much it means to us, to our relationship… I just figured that we would eat here, if we weren't eating at Kelly's already."

"You're so romantic."

"I try…"

Maxie was feeling wonderful, like everything between them was perfect, and then she remembered that everything between them wasn't perfect, because she couldn't trust him enough. She wanted to get that part of her life over with. She didn't want to be 'that' girlfriend, the one who needed to spend every waking moment with her boyfriend because she was afraid of what he would do without her. She had been that girl before, with Kyle, she didn't like being that girl. "Can I tell you something?"

"You can tell me anything, Maxie. You know that."

"You might not like hearing it…"

"It doesn't matter, if you think that you should tell me, then you should tell me. I want you to feel like you can tell me anything, because I feel like I can tell you anything…"

She sighed, hoping that everything would still be all right between the two of them once she confessed her sins. "The other day, when you called me and told me that you were going to take Brook to eat because she was depressed and she needed someone to talk with… I… I ended up sneaking into Kelly's before you got there and I hung out, hidden from the two of you."

"You were spying on me?"

"Not on you!" Maxie pointed out as fiercely as she could. "I trust you, Damian. Honestly, I trust you more than I've ever trusted anyone before in my life, even my sister. It's Brook Lynn that I don't trust. I know the way that she looks at you. You know that she has a crush on you…"

"I can't help that she feels that way about me, Maxie. I've told her time and time again that you're the only person that I want in my life, that I care about her, but the feelings that I have for her are not the same as the feelings that I have for you. I love Brook as a friend, I love you as everything that a friend can't be… I just wish you could believe that."

"I do… I do believe it."

"Really?"

"Yes, really. No more second guessing, all right? I hated keeping that a secret from you, Damian. I hated trying to keep the guilt away… I needed to know that nothing was going to happen between the two of you, and now that I know for sure, I'll back off…"

"I'm glad. Really, that makes me happier than you could imagine. I don't want you to think that I'm going to do something that will hurt you, because I don't want to ever do something that will hurt you."

"I don't think you ever will." And she meant it. He didn't want to hurt her because he cared about her so much, that kind of love wasn't the kind of love that came around very often. She needed to realize just how special she was for having it, and it may have taken her awhile, but she finally did.

Road-

Lois didn't want to go back to the Quartermaine Mansion. He would be there, and he would say something else, something that was so stupid that it would set her off again. Who the hell was he to even call her parenting skills into question? Yeah, sure, she and her daughter weren't exactly the Gilmore Girls, but they were close, closer than she was with her mother, in some ways.

The woman heard a song on the radio station that she was listening to, a song that she didn't want to hear. A song that they used to love. "Thank you, God, for reminding me of that jackass at such a horrible time. Nice to know that you're getting a kick out of my misery, too." Seeing that there was nobody on the road, Lois took her attention from the road for just a moment to fiddle with the radio station and look for something else. Her eyes were stained with tears. Then, she heard a loud sound, as if something had popped. Her tire. The car lost control for a second. Lois tried to hit the breaks, but all she saw was a fence pole, and then she screamed, and then there was nothing.


	30. Calling

Corinthos Household-

Courtney opened the door and called out to the empty void, "Carly? Sonny? Damian?" Each name was met with complete silence. If it wasn't for the fact that the penthouse was stories above the ground, and protected around the clock with the best bodyguards that Sonny's money could buy, which was a considerable amount, she would almost be worried. Again, perhaps in vain, she called out to them, "Is anyone home?"

"Where are my mommy and daddy?" Michael asked, walking into the house. He didn't like it when nobody was home. That was one of his favorite things about being in his family, there was almost always someone in the house, he never had to worry about being alone unless he wanted to be alone, and Michael rarely ever wanted to be alone.

Courtney brought the stroller that contained the now deep sleeping Morgan into the house and pulled him out, the boy not being awoken by the movement. "I don't know, honey. They called us at the zoo, remember? Carly said that she was going to take your father to get something to eat. Maybe they're still there."

"I bet whatever they have to eat isn't better than what we had to eat."

Courtney grinned, "Remember, you can't tell your mother that I let you have all that junk food. Actually, you can tell your mother that I let you have all that junk food, but you can't tell your father. Sonny will get on my case about feeding you food that he didn't cook." Sonny was like that, he didn't want his children eating anything that was unhealthy. Although he may not have looked the part, Sonny was probably the best cook that Courtney had ever known. Why Carly wanted to go out for dinner when she could have just asked her husband to make her something for dinner, Courtney would never know. It probably had something to do with Carly's need to get out of the house sometimes. One that Courtney could understand. Both of them spent a lot of time cooped up in their respective penthouses, and there were plenty of times when they just needed to have some sort of release. Ironic then that it happened to both of them on the same day.

"I won't tell daddy anything."

"Promise?"

"Of course I promise," Michael nodded. "I love it when I go out with you and Uncle Jason, because you let me have the things that daddy won't let me have, like corn dogs and cotton candy. If I told him that you gave me those things, he might not let me go out with you anymore, at least not the places that give that kind of food." Michael knew that his father would never deny him the time that he wanted to spend with Courtney and Jason, because Sonny also knew that those people were very important to Michael, and to Morgan as well.

"Such a good boy," Courtney looked over to the door where she saw Jason standing there, stoic as usual. Maybe he was thinking that there was something that was amiss as well. One couldn't blame Jason for wondering if something bad had happened to Sonny, it was almost always a possibility. "Jason, I'm going to go and put Morgan to bed now, could you stay with Michael?"

"Yeah, sure," Jason walked in, slipping off his leather jacket and placing it on the nearby table.

"Are you all right, Uncle Jason?" Michael asked as he sat on the couch, looking at his Uncle. Michael knew well and good that Jason was a man of little words, but what he didn't say with his voice he almost always said with his eyes, and those eyes said so much, it was almost impossible to understand.

"Why would you ask me something like that?"

"Because you look like you're thinking about something. Is there anything that I can do to help? I know I'm just a little kid, I know that there are things that I won't understand, but sometimes I know things, I can feel them, understand them. And you help me so much, Uncle Jason…"

Jason smiled at Michael. There was something about the boy that reminded him so much of someone else that was important to him: Lila. Lila was Michael's paternal great-grandmother, although they really didn't spend that much time together. But, the way that Jason felt around Michael was, in some ways, the way that Jason felt when he was around Lila. He missed her a lot more than he would ever let on. "Buddy, everything that you can do for me you do just by being yourself. You don't need to worry about me, though. I'm the adult here, I can take care of you."

"Yeah… I know, but, if you need me, you know you can come talk to me, right?"

"I do now."

Dillon had heard voices from the other end of the hallway, and he came to the open door where he saw Jason moving over to the couch and sitting next to Michael, wrapping his arm around the boy as Michael laughed and talked about all the animals that they had seen while they were at the zoo. When Dillon first came to Port Charles Jason was something else to him. Jason was like the beacon that he wanted to follow, the example that he needed to make sure that he became as well, especially when it came to being a Quartermaine. Jason made it look like he didn't care about anyone, but that just wasn't true. Jason cared more than anyone that Dillon had ever met, and that was evident by the sight that he was seeing at that very moment. People who believed that Jason and Sonny were just cold natured killers truly did not see everything. They only saw what they wanted to see, just like Mac.

"Hey," Courtney walked down the stairs again, alone, having left Morgan to his dreams, however pleasant they may have been. Leticia was upstairs, just coming out of the bath when she heard Courtney yell for someone, which was why she didn't say anything. And now the nanny was safely keeping watch over Morgan, almost assuredly able to take care of any problems that would arise. "What's up?"

Michael and Jason both found it odd that Courtney wasn't speaking to either of them, and then they looked at the door and saw the teenager who was standing there.

Dillon felt more than a little uncomfortable with the trio of eyes all bearing on his soul. It was at that moment that he felt like he was still an outsider, accepted only because of the situation, and nothing else. "I just thought that I heard you guys come back… so I thought I would see how the day went. Sorry, if I'm interrupting anything… I can go back to the house and, you know, make myself invisible."

"Don't be silly, Dillon," Courtney finished walking down the stairs, a small laugh coming out. "You don't need to feel like you have to leave. You've been living with Jason and I for months now, and I can count the number of times I've seen you here in Sonny's penthouse on one hand."

"Does my daddy scare you?" Michael asked, also realizing that while Dillon was only a few seconds away, he did not spend that much time at his house, and even when he did, it was almost always cooped up in Damian's room. "Because sometimes he scares people who don't know him very well, but he's really not that scary, Dillon. Daddy's just like every other person…"

"Sonny doesn't scare me," and he didn't, not anymore. Dillon had seen Sonny playing with Michael that one day in the park and it helped illuminate any fears that he had about being near Sonny, it helped dissolve them when he saw just how passionately Sonny cared about his children. While Dillon had no intentions of being a father anytime soon, he hoped that when the time came he could be half as devoted as Sonny appeared to be with his three children.

Anything that any person was going to say was going to have to wait, because before anything further could be said by anyone, the phone rang. Courtney walked over to the phone and picked it up. It wasn't her phone, but if it was an important message she could at least give it to Sonny or Carly. "Hello?" Courtney tried to make sense of the person who was on the other line, but there was so much noise, so much blubbering. "Who is this? Brook? Honey, you need to calm down… I can't really understand you…"

"Brook?" Dillon heard his niece's name and walked into the house. Why was she calling Sonny's, and why wasn't Courtney able to make sense of what she was saying? Dillon stood next to Courtney, "Can I have the phone, please?" Courtney nodded and handed it over. "Brook, its Dillon."

"Dillon?" Brook was glad to hear a more familiar voice. She was on the pier, sobbing on the bench. "I… I… tried to… to call you but… but nobody answered, even left a message on your phone…"

"I left it in my room when I came over to Sonny's house… Brook, what's wrong? Why do you sound like you're crying? Is everything all right? Are you hurt?"

"It's my… my mom… s-she… accident…"

Dillon felt his body go numb for a moment. "Lois was in an accident?" It made sense whys he called Sonny's now. Lois and Sonny were so close that it was scary. If she was hurt… or worse… "Brook, is she all right?"

"Don't know… I'm scared, Dillon…"

"Where are you?"

"The docks…"

"Stay there, I'm going to go and get you and we'll go to the hospital together. Stay there, Brook, please." Dillon placed the phone down and looked over at the others, his face had gone a ghostly white. "Lois was in an accident. Brook doesn't know anything else, but she's freaking out… I need to go be with her. When Sonny gets home… would you…"

Courtney couldn't believe that Lois had been in an accident. They didn't spend much time together, but the time that they did spend with one another showed that she was a great person. "Yeah. Call us if you find anything out, Dillon, please."

"I will," Dillon, not even grabbing his jacket from the Morgan Penthouse walked towards the elevator and slammed his palm on the button, hoping that the button would register the importance and the panic that was swelling up inside of him. "Please be all right…"

General Hospital-

"You know, I find it a little funny that you don't try and make sure that each and every one of your volunteer days doesn't happen to coincide with one of the days where I'm here on my internship…"

"I'm not going to be the kind of girlfriend who needs to spend every waking moment with her boyfriend. Give me a little bit of credit here…"

"I give you plenty of credit, Maxie," Damian wrapped his arm around her waist even tighter. "You know, I just hate to leave you here, in that nice little uniform of yours… someone might get an idea."

"Damian!"

"What, you can get jealous of someone, but I can't get jealous of someone? You happen to be a very beautiful young woman, and just because you're involved with me that doesn't mean that it is going to stop anyone from taking a second glance at you. If I were dating someone else…"

"You wouldn't even look, because you're not that kind of person," Maxie finished the sentence for him before he said something else. "That's why I shouldn't have been so insane about the relationship that you have with Brook. Just because she wants you doesn't mean that you have to want her back, and you don't, I know that now."

"Do you want me to walk you inside, or shall we part under the bright sign?"

"It might be easier to make the break now," Maxie noted, "every moment I spend with you is just another that I don't want to give up. I might just end up staying inside the hospital with you, wrapping myself around you, hoping that the moment would never end."

"You know that wouldn't work… it would look bad on both of us."

"Which is why we can't take the chance."

"Call me when you get off of work, all right? Even if I'm asleep, I'll wake up just to know that you got home safely." His last free day before the grind of hospital time started up again. It was like weekends didn't exist for him anymore. Such a horrible burden, and yet he was able to survive it. It should have said more about his character, but, to Damian, it didn't say much, just that he was too stubborn to quite, something that should have been known long ago.

"I'll do that." Maxie pulled at him as he started to walk away, "You know that you can't walk away from me without giving me a little something. How about a kiss?"

"I don't know… I don't kiss on command."

"You'd better start."

He leaned down and kissed her. "Is that better?"

"I'll expect something more passionate from you when we're not in a place where people can see us… but, for now, there was nothing to complain about. I love you, Damian."

"I love you, too. But I'll love you more if I know that I didn't cost you your job."

"I'm a volunteer!"

"They could still take your references away, or change them and make it look like you're some chronically late person." At his comment, Maxie rolled her eyes and walked into the hospital, waving lightly before she walked into the elevator. Damian waited until she was gone, then, turned on his heel and headed home for a night that he hoped would be relaxing.


	31. Raw Emotion

Samsonlove- There are no plans for Damian to care for Lois. I never even thought about that, although it would have made a decent little subplot. However, since the conclusion to the story has basically been written, I can't do much about it. That's not to say that he won't, at some time in the story, take care of another character that he is connected with. I love Lois as well, and, apparently, Lesli just got cast for the bold and the beautiful. Don't know about her role, since I don't watch the show, but yeah, she's got a new role. Good for her. The people at GH treated her so poorly. In the last story, Dillon told Damian that Brook was infatuated with him. I believe that Damian truly thinks that it is nothing more than just a crush and not a full blown enamoring, but he is well aware of the fact that Brook likes him. And, since he cares about Brook as a friend, and since it's Damian, he doesn't want to push her away and hurt her. I suppose Maxie is thinking like Mac, but, after all the years they've spent together… it was only a matter of time.

Story-

Port Charles-

"I still say that you could have made a better dinner than that…"

"The house doesn't have the same kind of ambiance, Carly, you know that."

"Who said I wanted ambiance?" Carly asked coyly.

"I'm sure we wouldn't have had nearly as much fun dancing if we had to move all of the toys that the boys left scattered around the house while we were doing it." Sonny could imagine what it would be like, dancing with his beautiful wife while he tripped over one of Morgan's many stuffed animals. Yeah, they had someone who could clean the house, but, for, whatever reason the children that Sonny and Carly had seemed to be able to make more messes than anyone could hope to clean up. Even Superman would have difficulty doing it, and not the Jason Morgan variety.

"We would have been reminded of the reasons why we're so happy together, though."

"We know why we're happy together," Sonny said as he laced his hand through his wife's, leading her out of the building and towards the waiting limo. "We always feel the children in our hearts, Carly. No matter where we are, no matter how we're feeling, we never forget the reasons why we're alive, why we fight so hard to keep everything together." It was more of a reminder for Sonny, but that was all right with him. If he needed to be reminded of the children, of why he fought tooth and nail against anyone and everyone who dared to threaten the sanctity of his family then what was wrong with that?

"At least we can be happy together… unlike some people…"

Sonny didn't need to even think about what Carly was trying to say, he knew very well that she was speaking about Lois and Ned. Ned had left the restaurant shortly after Lois had stormed out, Sonny giving him a very dirty look as he passed by. Sonny loved Lois like a sister, and he hated seeing her get hurt. He knew that it was Ned who had hurt her, it was almost always Ned who hurt her. "I wish I knew what was going on between them…"

"I could give you a list, but I probably don't have the time."

"Carly…"

"What?" She shrugged nonchalantly. "Look, just because you think the world of Lois doesn't mean that I'm not going to say what I think about her, and what I think is that she has a lot of emotional baggage that she needs to deal with, but is never able to."

"Funny… she said the same thing about you."

"Which of us is right?"

"Both of you…"

"Sonny!" Carly playfully batted at his shoulder with her hand. "I don't have half the emotional angst that Lois has!"

"You're right, you have double the emotional angst that Lois has…"

"If you weren't so handsome, and the father of my children, and the love of my life, that statement you just made would be more than enough of a reason to leave you."

"You forgot the money…"

"There are plenty of people here in Port Charles with enough money to keep me happy."

"Then you forgot the dimples."

Carly snapped her fingers, "I always forget your damned dimples. Show them to me, Sonny. Come on, just for me."

Sonny smiled, showing the dimples that were often the defeat of many a person, but, as soon as he did smile, his phone rang. He picked it up and looked at the number. "It's the house…" knowing that it could have been something that was imperative, Sonny opened up the clamshell top and placed it next to his ear. "Yeah?"

"Sonny, it's me…"

"Courtney? Why are you at the house, is something wrong with the children?"

"No, Sonny, nothing is wrong with the children. Michael's in his room playing a video game and Morgan's asleep. Leticia is watching him just in case something happens."

"Then why do you sound like you're hiding something from me? Why do you sound so sad?"

Courtney knew that he would pick up on the sound of her voice. Her brother had a way of finding out things about people, even when they tried their hardest to hide them from Sonny. It rarely ever worked. "Are you on your way home, or are you still at the restaurant?"

"I don't see why that matters…"

Carly was no longer calm. She knew that the boys were all right, because if they weren't Sonny would have been acting a lot more erratic than he was, but he kept on asking questions and wondering about why Courtney sounded sad. Did something happen? "Sonny, what's going on?" Her question was met with only a physical response from Sonny, who placed his hand up to silence her.

"Because you might need to head over to the hospital…"

"The hospital? Courtney, just tell me what's going on. Stop beating around the bush, please. You're making me nervous."

"It's Lois, Sonny. Brook Lynn called the house a little while ago and she talked to Dillon because he was in the hallway and… we don't know that much, but we know that there was an accident, and she's in the hospital right now. Dillon hasn't called, I don't even know if he's with Brook yet. But… she's your best friend, and… I just thought that you should know that something had happened to her."

Sonny felt a cold chill run through his entire body the moment that he heard that there could be something wrong with Lois. Lois? His Lois? The one who always seemed to be completely unbreakable? The one who could help him find something to smile and laugh about regardless of how bad things were going in his life? The one who he would joke about marrying when he was a little boy, because she was his best friend, and his only girl friend? "I'm on my way…" barely able to feel anything, Sonny ended the call and looked over at Carly, "Have the driver take you back to the penthouse…"

"Why? What's wrong? What about the hospital? Did something happen to Jason?"

"Lois was in an accident, Carly. I'm going to be over there, to be there when my friend wakes up…"

"I'm coming with you."

Sonny stared at her, "You and Lois can't be in the same room for thirty seconds without trying to attack one another, and I don't mean that in the verbal sense, you break out your claws. Right now Lois could be… Lois could be in a lot of trouble, she could need someone who cares about her to be there. She needs me…"

"And you need me, Sonny," Carly grabbed on to his arm tightly. "Look, I'm not going to pretend like I care about Lois, because I really don't, but I've never wanted her to get into an accident, I've never wanted her to get hurt, and, since this has happened, there's a chance…"

"Don't say it."

"Fine, I won't say it, but that doesn't mean that the odds still aren't there. I want to believe that it won't happen, Sonny. But, in case it does, I don't want you to feel like you can't have someone there to be with you when it does. Besides… I… just want to make sure she's all right, too…"

"You mean it?"

"Yeah, Sonny, I mean it."

He looked at her, reading her face, her emotions as best he could. Sonny was sometimes a poor judge of character, but when it came to Carly he was hardly that, nobody knew Carly as well as Sonny did, not even Carly herself, and, in that moment, he didn't see anything on her face, he didn't feel anything but an overwhelming aura of sincerity. "Come on, let's go."

General Hospital-

"What if she's… what if…"

"Brook, don't think like that," Dillon had been caring for his niece completely since the moment that he found her in a crumpled heap at the docks. She was barely able to stand up, but they made it to the hospital together. The whole time that they were walking Dillon had to listen to Brook tell him about each and every mistake that she had ever made when it came to her mother, as if she was trying to confess all of her sins before it was too late, and somehow, Dillon became the priest that she would use to converse with God. God tended to dislike people with his hairstyle, but, if it managed to make Brook feel better then Dillon was more than happy to do it.

"Mom…" Brook called out into the void, trying to feel her mother. "I'm sorry… I'm so sorry for doing everything that I did to you, for making your life so unhappy…"

"Listen to me," Dillon said, pulling her away from his shoulder so that he could look at her directly, "you never made your mother unhappy, Brook. I've talked to Lois a few times and every time she ever mentioned you her face lit up, even when she was upset at you for something that you did or something that you said it never for one moment took away from the feelings of love that she had for you, and it never will."

"I need to go…"

"Where are you going?"

"I just… I need to…"

Dillon stood up and followed her, "I'll go with…"

"No," Brook shook her head, her eyes still stained with the many tears that had fallen from her face. "Dillon, I need to do this alone, please. I just… I need to do something all by myself…"

Dillon watched as she turned the corner, fading away into the distance. He wanted to follow her, he truly did, but he thought that it would be better for both of them if he did indeed listen to his niece and keep his distance. He didn't know Brook very well, who was he to try and act like he knew what she needed, or what she wanted? Dillon picked up his cell phone once more and dialed his brother's number. There was still no answer. "Ned, this is like the fifth message that I've left for you in an hour, I need you to call me as soon as you can, it's really important." He would have called the house, but there was a chance that his mother could have answered, rare though it was when Tracy answered the phone herself. Still, the possibility existed and if he heard his mother, who had always treated Lois so badly, he would probably just blow up at her. He didn't need something like that.

Dillon paced around the waiting area, looking for something to do, thinking about all the possibilities that he had, about the things that he could do to make Brook's suffering a little easier to deal with. Try as he might, Dillon's brain just wasn't functioning in a way that he wanted it to. What could he do? Then, another name popped into his head. Dillon pulled out his phone once more and dialed another speed dial. "Please answer your phone… please…"

"What's up, Dillon?"

"Thank God you picked up the phone…"

"I'm not screening my calls…"

"Where are you?"

"On my way home… why?"

"I need you to come to the hospital. Please."

"The hospital, why?"

"Just come… all right?"

"Okay, I'll be there as soon as I can." Damian placed the phone back in his pocket, wondering just why it was so imperative that he make it back to the hospital. What was going on? And, whatever it was, was it something that he wanted to actually know about?


	32. Broken

Samsonlove- The ending hasn't even been written yet. I might be a bit ahead, but even I'm not that far ahead. I don't even know how I want the story to end just yet, I have some hankerings, but nothing that is so definite that I can decide it is 'the' ending. I think that Maxie becoming a cop would also make a good storyline, although I doubt that she will, let alone have Mac 'let' her do it.

Story-

Port Charles Police Department-

It was a slow night in Port Charles, but, make no mistake, people in Port Charles enjoyed the slow nights a lot more than they enjoyed the nights where things were going to hell. It usually meant one thing: Sonny Corinthos was in trouble again, and, ever since his son made his appearance in Port Charles all those months ago, which seemed like so much longer to certain people. One of those people was Mac Scorpio, and, now, whenever there was something that involved Sonny and trouble, Mac couldn't help but wonder if Damian was involved, and, in turn, if his daughter was in trouble as well. Each and every time that there was a call about something that happened that even remotely seemed like Sonny, Mac had to fight the urge to call Maxie and make sure that she was all right. Maxie had always been a handful, ever since she decided that she wanted to be more independent and go against the grain that Mac had tried so hard to maintain, but, now that she was busy shacking it up with Damian and his father, things just got a whole lot worse for Mac.

"Sitting on your ass isn't going to help solve the problems on this street, Commissioner Scorpio."

Mac turned around from his seat, putting the picture that he had of himself and his daughter's at Maxie's graduation back on the bookshelf that was behind him. Had it really only been seven months since his little girl became a woman, since she got out of high school and was well on her way to entering the real world? Mac was so proud of Maxie on that day, so happy for everything that was going to happen, but now, when he thought about it, he wished that she would have stayed in high school a little while longer. Damian certainly wouldn't have gone and dated a girl that was still a minor, Mac understood Damian's admittedly pretty decent moral values, and that wasn't one of them.

"I'm not, as you so bluntly put it, sitting on my ass, John," Mac replied, turning around in his chair. "The minute something happens on my streets I'm going to find a way to deal with it, but, until then, we have a night where there isn't anything happening, and I for one am going to take it as the blessing that it is."

"Who do you think you're fooling, Mac?" John asked. "You could be doing one of so many things right now to bring down that bastard Corinthos and his puppet, but instead all I see is a group of men and women in the main part of the police department busy drinking coffee and eating donuts!"

Lucky walked in, a half eaten donut in his hand. Mac gave him a dirty look that made Lucky think that he had done something wrong. However, he didn't think that he had. Curious, Lucky couldn't help but ask, "What's wrong?"

John snickered, "I rest my case…"

Mac rolled his eyes, "Lucky, did you need something, or did you just come in to humiliate me in front of one of the most powerful lawmen in the country?"

"Someone needs to get over to the hospital…"

"The hospital?" Mac finally got up out of his chair, ready to spring into action in case he was needed. "Why, what's wrong?"

"There was an accident, a woman ended up swerving off the road. Someone saw it happened and called 9-1-1, but there was no indication of anything that had caused the accident to happen. We might have a DUI on our hands."

"How is she?" Mac asked.

"We don't know yet. I called my Aunt, she said that whenever she found out any information about the condition of the person she would give me a call so that I could tell you." Lucky's voice lowered itself as he readied to tell Mac the rest of the information. "Mac, there's more… the person… the person who got in the accident is Lois."

"Lois?"

"It's obvious what is going on here," Durant finally opened his mouth after moments of wonderful silence. "Sonny Corinthos decided that he wanted to take the woman out because she knew too much."

Lucky defended Sonny almost instantly, a rare thing, but Lucky knew that Sonny would never do something like that to Lois, and the young man was getting more than fed up with John and his inability to shut up. "Lois and Sonny are best friends, they've been best friends since they were children. Sonny might be a lot of things, but he has never once caused any sort of harm to any woman, he doesn't work like that."

"What about his first wife?" John remarked, "The one who got blown up in the car bomb that was intended for him? The one who died carrying Sonny's first child with her?"

"You're a sick individual, you know that," Lucky didn't need to know much about John to know that he didn't like him. Ignoring the man as best he could, Lucky turned his attentions back to his boss, "Mac, if you want me to do this, I can. I know that you and Lois are friends. I know her, too, but it isn't like the relationship between the two of us is strong…"

"I think that would be best, Lucky, thank you."

"I'll come, too," John announced.

"Have fun walking," Lucky replied. "I can't stop you from following me, but I'll be damned if I'm going to let you take a ride to the hospital with me. You're not employed here, I don't have to coddle you in any way."

"I'll remember that when I take over Lansing's job as the DA of Port Charles, Lucky."

Showing no fear in his face, Lucky responded, "I'll take my chances."

Mac leaned against the desk when Lucky and Durant were gone. He turned his head up high and hoped that Lois would be all right. Like Lucky, Mac was almost certain that Sonny did not play a direct part in what had happened to Lois, but, unlike Lucky, Mac was not able to let him off the hook so easily. Maybe Sonny didn't have anything to do with it, but that didn't mean that it did not happen because of him. What if someone was striking at Lois because of her connection? That was what Mac feared when it came to his own daughter. What would happen if someone decided to use Maxie as a target again?

General Hospital-

Dillon paced around the waiting area of the hospital, because he was waiting for something. He was waiting for news on Lois, he was waiting for his brother to finally call him back, he was waiting for his best friend to come and help him deal with his niece. Everything was happening so quickly, Dillon just wanted to find some way to stop time so that he could take a breather. Was that so wrong?

The doors to the elevator finally opened and Damian walked through them. He looked for Maxie first, since the nurses' station was closest, but she wasn't there. It either meant that she was doing something, or that she was right around the corner comforting Dillon. For what it was worth, Damian hoped that it was the second option, because Dillon probably needed someone, and he couldn't be there right away. Maybe Georgie was there, although if she was Dillon probably wouldn't have called Damian with such a frantic tone of voice.

Damian turned the corner just in time to see Dillon sink into one of the couches and dip his head into his hands. Instantly, Damian was reminded of that night when Dillon found out about Lila's passing. It was probably worse now, because he wasn't sure if Lois was gone or if she wasn't, and the waiting was almost assuredly driving him crazy. "Dillon…"

Dillon wasn't going to cry, but there was a chance that his eyes could have gotten misty eyed. Before he showed his face to his friend, who he knew would not mock him for showing emotion, he quickly used his fingers to wipe away any residue of tears that had hoped to form. But that was all that he was going to do, he wasn't going to try and act strong, he wasn't going to try and look like he wasn't worried, because he was. "Thanks for coming…"

"You wanted me to come to the hospital, what else were you expecting me to do, say that I was too busy?" Damian smiled, hoping that a joke would help ease his friend's torment, it probably wasn't going to work, but nobody could fault Damian for wanting to find a way to help ease Dillon's pain. "Besides, you stuck around the hospital when I was here… figure I owe you a few hospital hours."

"Don't…" Dillon shook his head, "don't remind me of that time, all right?" He understood what Damian was trying to do it, and maybe after everything was taken care of, once he realized what was wrong, if things were going to be all right or if he would have to go through life without yet another person who he was connected to, he would thank Damian for the effort, but, at that moment, there wasn't going to be any thanking.

"Look, I know this is going to sound like it's a stupid question, but I need to ask it. How are you holding up?"

"I'm scared…"

"I know you're scared," Damian looked around for another person who was almost assuredly going to be there. Why wouldn't she be with her mother when she woke up? If… she woke up. "Hey, where's Brook?"

"That's why I called you," Dillon said, "I know that she cares about you, you know, in that way. I hate to ask you to use that right now, but I need someone to do it. I need someone who can break through to her. I tried to help her deal with her grief, but she didn't want me to do it. I can't get in touch with Ned, and she doesn't really have any friends at school, and since her mom is in the hospital she's also out of the question…"

"You want me to see how she's doing?"

"Please… she's my niece… I have to make sure that she's all right, or at least do something to help make her feel better. If you don't want to do it… if you can't do it because of the way that she feels about you I'll understand, but I'm asking you, as a friend…"

"Don't bother playing the friend card, Dillon," Damian interrupted him, "save it for when you want me to watch some incredibly boring movie, or help you write some essay for one of your classes. Brook's my friend, and I care about her, if she's going through some sort of pain, I want to be there to help her if I can. Where is she?"

"I don't know," Dillon shrugged, "she said that she needed to take care of something and then she stormed off. I wanted to follow her, but I thought that if I did and she caught me it would end up making everything worse. Right now she's just in so much pain, Damian. If I added to it, she might not ever forgive me. I might not ever forgive myself."

"I think I have an idea where she went… just stay here, and keep trying to get in touch with Ned, all right? He needs to know that Lois is in trouble."

Chapel-

Brook had been sitting on one of the pews and bawling her eyes out ever since she left her Uncle Dillon alone. Thankfully, the small chapel that was a part of the church was empty the entire time. Nobody else was having a single problem in the world but her, did that make it easier for God to listen? Hopefully, because, if there was ever a time when Brook needed God to hear her prayers, it was at that moment. She didn't want to lose her mother. Brook may have been driven insane by Lois on a regular basis, but that didn't mean that she still didn't love her mother. Her mother was the only person who understood Brook, at least at times.

Finally, after what seemed to be forever, Brook stood up from her pew and walked over to the candles, picking one up and lighting it off the wick of the candle that was right below the cross, the candle that burned eternally. She didn't really go to church that often, but that didn't mean that she didn't believe. God wouldn't care, right? It wouldn't make her less of a person worth listening to, because she didn't go to church on a regular basis, because she wasn't as devout as some people? Brook had so many questions, all she wanted was some answers, all she wanted was some help.

It didn't take long for him to reach the chapel. It was the most logical place for someone to turn to when they needed some help. He ran there when he was waiting for the test results to prove that he was Sonny's child, he ran to a church when he was dealing with the grief of losing his mother on her anniversary. Despite long ago abandoning his extreme devotion to God and to the house of God, Damian couldn't deny that there was something comforting about turning to the house when anyone needed a helping hand.

He saw her standing by the cross and quietly walked inside, letting the door close silently behind him. When he was close enough, he gently touched her shoulder. The shock caused her to gasp, but when she looked over and saw him looking at her, a sorrowful smile on his face, she broke down and leaned against him, sobbing and shaking with all the pent up feelings that she had tried to keep from everyone. Damian quickly placed a hand around Brook, patting her on the back, "It's going to be okay…"

Brook pulled away from his body to look up at him with her bloodstained eyes, "How do you know that? How can you stand there and tell me that everything is going to be all right? My mother was in an accident, Damian… do you know what that feels like? Do you know what it feels like to think that there might be a chance that you'll never see her again?"

"Yeah, I do, and I know how it feels to know that there is never a chance that you'll ever see her again," he didn't fault Brook for acknowledging the fact that he had lost his mother. When people were in pain it tended to slip their mind. "But I also know that until the doctors here tell you one way or the other about your mom that there's a good chance she'll make it out all right. You need to keep on believing that, Brook. General Hospital is one of the best hospitals around. Believe me, I work here…"

"Dillon sent you here, didn't he?"

"No, Dillon asked me to come and see how you were doing, but he didn't need to ask me, because once I found out that your mom was in an accident I would have come looking for you anyway. Nobody needs to tell me to care about you, Brook, because you're my friend and you matter to me. I just wanted to make sure that you're all right…"

"I will be, if you stay with me…"

Maxie passed by the chapel on her way back to the nurses' station. She didn't know what caused her to look inside the chapel, usually she didn't bother, but there was something that pulled her in and made her look. When she did look, and when she saw Brook with her arms around her boyfriend, Maxie assumed the worst. He had lied to her… crushed, she turned and walked away.


	33. Not So Perfect

Outside General Hospital-

Sonny waited in the back seat of the limo as the dim lights that came from the hospital managed to almost pierce their way through the black bulletproof windows that he had installed in all his vehicles, just in case people got ideas. It wasn't that he had to worry about too many people anymore, since Lorenzo and Faith were gone, but, if anyone targeted Sonny again he wasn't going to allow himself to be caught unaware. However, all the physical protection that money could buy could not protect something that was more important to Sonny: his soul.

Carly looked over at Sonny, ready to get out of the car and make sure that Lois was all right. They hadn't said anything to one another during the whole ride, although it was a short distance from point A to point B. Still, whenever Sonny was quiet it was often a sign of things going and taking a turn for the worse. In some small way, Carly blamed Lois for doing it. If she wouldn't have gotten into an accident, Sonny wouldn't be worrying about her wellbeing, and that would mean that Carly could rest a little easier. Somewhat selfish? No, completely selfish, and Carly didn't give a damn. After all, it was Lois that she was thinking about.

Carly watched as her husband continued to stare into the vast nothingness of space. While it was true that Sonny's mind was, at times, the most complicated thing that she had ever come in contact with, there were times when she didn't need to read his mind to know what he was thinking. Such was a time that had befallen her at that moment. Sonny's eyes showed pain and worry. She had seen those eyes many times before, usually when the people who were close to Sonny had gotten hurt. Maybe even on some small level, Sonny wondered if what had happened to Lois was somewhat related to her ties with him. "You didn't have anything to do with this, Sonny. We don't even know what happened yet."

"Which is why we can't be too sure if I really didn't have anything to do with it, Carly," Sonny replied, turning his head slowly to meet the gaze of his wife. On one level he almost wished that Carly wouldn't have come. He appreciated the gesture, he really did, but there was little more than that. Carly wasn't going to the hospital to see Lois out of the goodness of her heart, Sonny knew that. She was going to the hospital because she wanted to make sure that there was nothing that happened that would send Sonny over the edge. While it was a very noteworthy thing to do, given the circumstances it was a little cold.

"The only way that we're going to find out one way or the other is if you actually go and ask yourself. For all you know she could be in a bed waiting for you to come and see her and make sure that she's all right." That would be just like her, needing Sonny when Lois was well aware of the fact that Carly was his wife, not the other way around. She placed her hand over his gently and tugged at it, "I know how afraid you must feel right now, Sonny. Remember how many times I've gone through the same thing with you, or with Jason, or with Courtney, or with our children. Believe me, I've tried to find ways to make the time go by a little quicker, make the pain a little less intolerable."

"And?"

"And I found that the best thing to do when something like this comes up is to just go and do it. Get it over with… and then deal with the consequences. But always hope for the best. I know you've been praying ever since you stepped in the car, Sonny, I know that you'll probably go and pray to God at the chapel the second that we get inside the hospital, and I don't blame you for it. But you're never going to find out what happened to Lois unless you get up the courage to actually go and check up on her."

Sonny nodded, "You know… a few seconds ago I was half-hoping that you hadn't come with me, Carly, but now, after hearing you say that, I'm glad that you did." Sonny gripped her hand tightly before he made his request, "No matter what happens, please say that you'll stay with me, be by my side."

With her free hand, Carly touched Sonny's cheek softly, "I wouldn't imagine going anywhere else. Courtney and Jason are with the boys right now, so they'll answer any questions that Michael might have if he knows about what happened to Lois. I'm here for as long as you need me."

Inside General Hospital-

Tears were a funny thing. There were plenty of things that could create tears, plenty of feelings. Maxie had long ago learned that she could cry tears of sadness and frustration at the same time. Kyle had made her realize that very quickly in their relationship. But, if there was one thing that Maxie thought she would never have to deal with in her relationship with Damian it was her crying the same way that she had cried with Kyle. How foolish of her to think that he really was as great as she thought he was. He wasn't, Damian was just like Kyle in so many ways. He lied to her, he used her. Maybe he didn't use her for sex, but he still used her, and that was just as bad as him expecting her to just spread her legs for him. The image of him holding Brook in the church continued to disgust Maxie as she made her way back towards the nurses' station. How could he do something like that to her? In a place of worship, no less. She was fully aware of the fact that he had abandoned the strength of his faith, but even he had to admit that cheating on his girlfriend with another girl in the church was just incredibly tacky.

Maxie saw her Aunt Bobbie standing at the nurses' station, looking over a file. What the file contained did not matter to Maxie, she had one thing on her mind. Trying to cover her emotions as well as she could, she walked over to Bobbie and spoke, "I can't do this today, Bobbie. I'm sorry, I just can't volunteer right now… I've got a lot on my mind and I don't want people to suffer because I can't give them the focus that they need."

Bobbie looked up for Lois's file, which was not in clear view of Maxie. She was shocked to hear Maxie say such a thing. It wasn't like her to just abandon a shift. The old Maxie may have done that, quite frequently, but the new Maxie, the one who was responsible and thought of others more than she thought of herself? That was almost unheard of. Unable to contain her curiosities as an Aunt, Bobbie had to ask, "Is everything all right, sweetie?"

"No, it isn't," but Maxie was strong, convincing herself that she wouldn't cry in front of the people that she loved, or in front of anyone. "Please, I just need to get some time to myself, I have a lot to sort through. Bobbie… please."

"You're a volunteer here, Maxie, I can't make you stay against your will," Bobbie continued to look into her niece's eyes, seeing that there was the faint outline of tears. What was going on? Knowing that Maxie would only retreat further into herself if she was constantly probed, Bobbie kept her questions to herself, instead only giving her niece a simple word of advice, "If you need me, you know that you can call me at any time, right?"

"Yeah, I know. Thanks. I'll be back the next time that I'm scheduled to be here, I promise." She wasn't going to let him keep her from doing something that she liked, even if it was the place where he worked at most of the week. She could avoid him. The hospital was a big place. She could just go to the cafeteria all the time, he hated it there, it was like the plague to him. So upset was Maxie that she didn't even see Dillon right around the corner as she headed for the elevator, nor did she hear his calling of her name. If she had been less blinded by her anger she may well have pondered just what it was that had brought Dillon to the hospital on a night when her sister was not doing any volunteer work. But, at that moment, it didn't matter. All that mattered was getting home and making sure that she could vent out her anger in a safe environment.

Dillon thought about following Maxie, having seen the state that she was in, seen the look of hurt and frustration that was on her face, but there were more important things that he needed to do. It caused a knot to twist in his stomach, knowing that he was sacrificing the wellbeing of someone who he cared about for another, but Maxie was alive, Maxie was physically fine, there was almost no chance that Lois came out of the accident without a scratch. Besides, Maxie had Georgie. Lois didn't have anyone, she didn't even have Ned, who had refused to return the calls. Dillon had finally given up. If Ned didn't answer any of his million of messages, then it was obvious that he just didn't care that the mother of his daughter may have been…

"Dillon?"

Dillon turned around when he heard his voice called by a most unlikely person. "Carly?" What the hell was Carly doing there? It was one of the few times where he was actually thankful to see a familiar face. If it was anyone but Carly, he probably would have ran to her and hugged her, looking for comfort, but Carly wasn't particularly fond of him, and the same could be said the other way around. They got along, but it wasn't like they were the type of friends that Carly was with Courtney and he was with Damian. Sonny followed closely behind, Dillon looking at his solid brown eyes that sent a jolt of pure fear into the boy. "Sonny…"

"Have you gotten in touch with your brother yet?" Sonny asked, immediately going straight to business. There was no time to dance around the issue at hand, he needed to be focused, he needed to do what he could.

"No, I've left him a bunch of messages…"

"Bastard…"

"Come on, Sonny. Ned's a really busy guy." Dillon loved Ned, Ned was like his anchor a lot of the time that he was staying at the Quartermaine mansion, the person that he felt that he could talk to about his problems the most. Lila was there in the beginning, but at the same time Lila wouldn't really relate to the problems of a teenager. Ned didn't really understand them either, but he had the advantage of having the same mother as Dillon. So, when Sonny called Ned a bastard, Dillon had to defend his brother's honor, even if it was against someone who could have him wiped off the face of the earth without a moment's notice. Hopefully that wouldn't happen. What was that thing that people said about best friends with benefits? It didn't have the same context, but maybe Damian and Dillon's strong friendship gave Dillon a few 'get out of being erased free' cards. Knowing Dillon, he'd probably given up a few already.

"Your brother is the one who made Lois run away, Dillon," Sonny said calmly. "We were at a restaurant here in town because it was the first night in a long time where we were able to actually have a moment alone. Lois came around and said that she was waiting for Ned, and when your brother came they took off to a table of their own. I didn't think anything of it, but not even five minutes later Lois took off, and it was easy to see that she was upset."

Dillon lowered his eyes, "I didn't know that…"

"Of course you didn't." Sonny replied. "But, Dillon, I swear to you, if Ned killed Lois, if what he said hurt her so much that she ended up dying in that accident…"

"Sonny," Carly placed a hand on his shoulder. It wasn't so much to keep Dillon from hearing Sonny basically place a hit on his older brother, but it was to keep Sonny from saying something that Dillon could use against him in a court of law. Carly would lie for Sonny if the worst happened, she had done it many times before. Dillon, on the other hand, was under no such oath, and, against his own brother, Carly was uncertain where Dillon's loyalties may have fallen, but her money was on them not going with her family.

Sonny blinked a few times, letting the anger ride over him. He was upset at Ned, which made it easier because it meant that he had something to focus his anger on instead of needlessly beating himself up, but he was angry at Ned, not Dillon. "Listen, I'm sorry about what I said… it's just that Lois is so important to me, and knowing that she's hurt, and knowing that someone that I know could have been at least partially responsible for it…"

"I'm sure Ned didn't mean to do anything that would cause Lois to wreck her car." Yeah, they were divorced, but Ned had never spoken badly of Lois, ever, at least not as far as Dillon had seen or heard. "And, once he finds out, he's going to feel really bad."

"Let's just hope he feels bad enough," Sonny muttered under his breath.

Carly wanted to get the two off of a topic that could have led to something that she wasn't ready to deal with, so, she spoke up after looking around and finding something, anything else to talk about. "Where's Brook? Does she know that her mother is in the hospital?"

"She's the one who called me," Dillon replied, still feeling the tension in the air, noting the way that it had only increased instead of gone down. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to be around Sonny and his family all the time. They had been pretty decent people up until that moment, when Dillon actually felt more than a little uncomfortable in being around them. He was downright scared. "She's… actually, I don't even know where she is right now. She came to the hospital with me, but then she said that she needed to go and do something on her own."

"And you just let her go?" Sonny was aghast, how could Dillon do something like that? Something so stupid?

"Sonny, if I thought I could help her I would have followed her, but I saw the way that she looked at me, she looked at me with eyes that said that she needed her space. I'm her uncle, I can't smother her just because. Besides, I called Damian up right after she left and he came as soon as he could and said that he would look for her. Since he hasn't called me or anything I can only assume that he found her, he said he had a good idea of where she was going to be."

"So now what?" Carly wondered, leaning against the arm of the couch, the tension easing just a little with the motion.

"We wait," Sonny replied, sitting down in one of the chairs, lowering his body and leaning forward, much in the same way that he did when he was contemplating something. Waiting was never his strong point.


	34. Caused It

Samsonlove- In some very, very indirect way, Ned caused the accident, because it was his words that caused Lois to become so irrational and crash her car. He is not directly responsible, nor should he really shoulder the blame, but, in some way, it is kind of his fault. As for Maxie… yes, she's acting a little stupid, but that's the point. Most people would think about that, and, especially since she doesn't know that Lois is in the hospital, she wouldn't think about it any other way. As for the mob territory stuff, I'm making it all up, going by what I've seen on the show and hoping that it is accurate. If it isn't, well, then that would be bad.

Story

Quartermaine Mansion, Interior-

Ned finally walked into the house, wondering if Lois had returned from her little outburst, or even if she would return. It wouldn't have been surprising to Ned if Lois decided that she didn't want to have anything to do with the Quartermaine house. He just hoped that it didn't mean that she would take Brook back. Could Ned let that happen? Could he even fight for his daughter? He didn't know. After all, they hadn't talked about the legality of the situation. Ned was just happy to have his princess there by his side when he needed her. But where was she? "Brook?"

"Darling," Tracy walked in, carrying a nice cup of some liquor in her hand, "you should know better than to call out for your daughter like some uncivilized brute."

"Mother, I don't have time for you…"

"Now, now, Ned, can you really say that to me? Your mother? The woman who carried you inside of her stomach for almost a year?"

"The woman who threw me aside the minute I became inconvenient to you and your desires for sexual conquests and control of ELQ?" He really didn't want to deal with his mother, and, if he was able to push her away, he would do it. Ned hadn't forgotten everything that Lois had told her. Did he really rely on his mother too much? Did he let her shape him in ways that he thought he didn't? It was certainly a possibility. "I just want to speak with my daughter, is that so much to ask?"

"She's not here…"

"Where is she?"

"Hopefully at the mall getting some clothes that don't make her look like a rag doll…"

"You know, some people tend to be rather supportive of their grandchildren. Lila never once insulted any of us for the choices that we made, even when you did. She never mocked Dillon for doing what he did, for being who he was… don't you think you can be half the mother, half the grandmother, that your own mother was?"

"Nobody can be like my mother, Ned," Tracy said, obviously hurt that she was once more compared to her own mother, a comparison that should have honored her, and on some levels it did, but at the same time the comparison made it all too obvious that Tracy could never be another Lila Quartermaine. The closest person who could was Emily, and Tracy hated admitting that, because Emily wasn't even a true Quartermaine. She was some little castoff that was adopted, but no, she had Lila's heart and soul, two things that people tended to think Tracy didn't even have at all. "And I can't help it if I actually have standards…"

"If you can call what you have standards." Ned ignored his mother at last, and screamed against, to get someone's attention and also just to piss Tracy off. "Alice!"

If there was one person that Tracy wished she could get rid of, it was Alice, their maid. Every day she wore the same outfit, adorned with the gift that Lila had given Alice in the will, her beautiful brooch that Tracy had also always wanted. It was on her person the moment she walked inside. "Ignore my son, oaf, I can handle this."

Alice paid Tracy little attention, not popping her head like a grape only out of respect for Lila and for Edward. Dillon and Ned would probably thank her, especially Dillon. Alice missed the teenager and his quirks, the way that he wouldn't mind if she borrowed a movie or two here and there. Dillon actually treated her like an equal, even though she clearly wasn't. "Ned, what is it?"

"Have you seen my daughter?"

"She came home from school a few hours ago, and then she ran off again. I don't know where she went. Have you tried her cell phone?"

Ned shook his head, "My phone died, I was on the phone for too long with one of the business partners who couldn't make it to the meeting earlier today. Every time I tried to use it, I ended up having it die on me." Ned pulled his phone out and turned it on, hoping for more success, or just to prove his point. Then, he noticed all the missed calls that he had. "What in the world?" He looked as quickly as he could, and saw one name over and over again: Dillon.

"What's wrong?" Tracy asked.

"Dillon called my phone almost a dozen times in the span of half an hour…" Ned placed the phone down and walked into the living room, picking up the house phone.

"Why would Dillon only call you?" Tracy wondered. "I'm his mother, if he has something that he needs to talk about why wouldn't he try and talk about it with me?"

"Maybe because you're his mother, and you don't ever listen to him. I'm sure the fact that you tend to make him feel like he's barely worthy of breathing the same air as you has something to do with the reason that he doesn't trust you as much as he would trust a complete stranger on the street," Alice didn't mind giving a less than casual rib towards Tracy when the opportunity arose. In fact, she relished in the occasion. Tracy only gave her a dirty look, and Alice could only smile.

"Would you both stop squabbling, please?" Ned asked as he finished dialing Dillon's cell phone number. "Something could be wrong…"

Dillon heard his phone ring and he picked it up. The number flashed on the screen before he answered it, and he hesitated, if only for a moment. It wasn't Ned's cell, it was the main house, which meant that it could have been his mother. But… even then… she deserved to know. Hoping that it wasn't her, Dillon answered, "Hello?"

"Sorry I missed all your calls…"

"What the hell happened?"

Ned was taken back by Dillon's approach, it was rare that he even seemed to lose his temper. He'd rarely seen his little brother angry. "My phone was dead, Dillon, I couldn't pick it up even if I wanted. Why did you call so much, is everything all right?"

"Lois was in a car accident, Ned."

Ned stopped breathing for a second, and almost dropped the phone, but he kept himself aloft with all the strength that he could muster. Finally, he found his voice again, "Is she…" he couldn't finish the sentence.

"I don't know, nobody does. Sonny's here waiting for any information."

"Why would Sonny be there?"

"Because he cares about Lois, Ned," Dillon defended Sonny and his ties to Lois, "because Lois is his best friend, and maybe because Sonny isn't the one who caused Lois to get into the car accident, that honor belongs entirely to you."

"What are you talking about?"

"Sonny told me about the dinner that you and Lois had, Ned. He told me that you got her so upset that she left without even a word, and that was what made her so irrational that she ended up driving her car into a ditch. How does that make you feel?"

"Does Brook know?"

"Yes, Brook knows, she's here. The people that are apparently important to Lois are here waiting to hear about her. But you're at the house. Did you even think about what you said, and how she reacted to it? Did you even care?"

"Listen to me, Dillon, do not even attempt to understand what I'm feeling right now. I'm coming to the hospital, if you want to get pissed off at me while I'm there then I suggest that you stay away from me, because I can't guarantee that I won't knock you out. Don't ever say something like that to me again…" Ned hung up the phone in anger. But it wasn't so much anger at Dillon, it was anger at himself. He did realize now what he had caused, what had happened to Lois, and how it ended up being partly because of him.

"Is Dillon all right?" Tracy inquired, feeling her own pangs of doubt and worry. She loved her youngest son, she truly did. She just had a hard time showing it.

"Yes, mother, he's fine. I need to go," unable and unwilling to answer any more of her questions, Ned walked out of the room and out the door, slamming it as hard as he could.

General Hospital-

Sonny paced around the hospital, looking for someone, anyone who could help him. Most of the people were afraid of him, afraid of what he could do to them if they didn't give him the answers that he wanted. Sonny had been through such motions before, when his son was in the hospital. He hated hospitals. The chances of losing people that he cared about were so high, and he couldn't deal with losing someone as important to him as Lois.

"Looking to see if your latest conquest went through?" John asked, seeing Sonny from behind. He could make out Sonny's figure in a crowd of millions. John targeted Sonny for the prestige of being the one man who could take him out.

Sonny turned around. He'd heard John Durant's voice before, but only on the television. It sounded the same, but he just needed to make sure. When he saw the man he thought it would be a lot worse on him, but Sonny had more important things to deal with than John. "I was wondering when you would show up."

"And I bet you were praying to any sort of God that you may believe in that it never came," John walked over to Sonny, standing tall over him, "sorry to disappoint you."

"My best friend is in the hospital right now, you sick bastard, why don't you save your petty little feud against me for a time when we're in a less populated area?"

"Because then you might be able to get away with killing me the same way that you've gotten away with killing so many other people…"

"None of those have been proven."

"I may uphold the law, Corinthos, but I'm fully aware of the fact that it isn't perfect. I know just how many times you've managed to skate away from something that would have taken just about anyone else down."

"I tend to only pay attention to people who aren't a complete waste of my time, so, I'm going to save myself your babble and just get on with my life…"

John snickered, "Why can't you just admit that you're afraid of what I could do to you, Sonny? Why can't you admit that you've met your match in me, someone who you can't hope to bribe or scare off? I've fought people who are way better at this game than you are, and guess what, I always win."

"Careful now, someone might come in and break that ego bubble of yours. We're on the fourth floor, I would hate to see the three floors below us end up getting flooded out because of something that big being burst."

"I've been watching you, Sonny. I've been in Port Charles for weeks, and how long has it been since you actually noticed that I was here? Since your little mobster son ended up telling me? Or maybe it was when your half-brother came to you with information, looking for some sort of handout in a vain attempt to get the love that you've always denied him."

"Leave my family out of this!"

"I can't do that, Sonny," John said, "because your family means so much to you, but you only value them as possessions, you don't care about them as anything more than that. They help keep you afloat, they tell you the things that you want to hear, they make you seem like you're not some cold hearted monster when you really are. If they stood up to you, even for a second, if they forced you to see yourself for what you really are what do you think would happen? Do you think you would just be all right with them saying those things to you? Don't be stupid, I know that you would just toss them aside like they were nothing…"

"You don't know a damned thing about me…"

"That's where you're wrong, Corinthos. I know everything about you, and your family. I know that you're using your influence to get by in life, I know that your family depends on you for everything. You've got an adult son who doesn't even know how to live by himself because he knows that he can just go straight to daddy and daddy will take care of everything."

"If you truly think that Damian isn't capable of getting by in life without me, then you're a bigger idiot than I thought."

"Keep on telling yourself that when I put all the people around you in jail for everything that they've done for you. Your precious children will be behind bars, or placed so far away from you that you'll never see them again."

"Don't come after the people that I care about, Durant." Sonny warned him, not a threat, merely a warning, for now. "Because, if you do… who knows what will happen. I'm never going to let you or anyone else use my family as a weapon against me, regardless of what I do."

"This is just the pre-game, Sonny," John turned around and began to walk away, "kickoff hasn't even started yet." He had made contact with the enemy, and the enemy was just as he expected, easy enough to get under the skin of. John didn't expect the job to have any sort of difficulty. And, while he was in the hospital, he decided to drop in on someone else… see just how much of a name she claimed to make for herself.


	35. Step Away

Scorpio Household-

Eventually, Maxie would find out just what had happened that night, eventually she would see the mistake that she had made in judgment, but, eventually had yet to come, and, at that moment, she was too blind by rage and betrayal. The one person who she thought she could depend on completely had stomped all over her heart. He had done something that she thought he would never do, he had done something that made him seem so much like Kyle, the person who she once thought to be his antithesis. As soon as Maxie walked into the house she felt the wave crash over her. No longer did she need to act like she was doing all right, because she wasn't. Even though she had sworn to herself that she wouldn't cry over the change, she couldn't act upon that promise, because the pain was so much, so great.

She walked up the stairs to her room, stomping as loudly as she could. If anyone was there, it didn't matter, nothing mattered anymore, all that mattered was finding a way to get the gaping feeling of betrayal and nothingness out of her body. When she opened the door she looked over at her mirror, the pictures that they had taken stared at her, the smiles on both their faces. She thought that they were so truthful, but what if they weren't? What if he had been playing her the whole time, secretly finding time to spend with Brook without her knowing, only to be discovered at the end. Yes, that didn't sound like something that he would ever do to anyone, but, at the same time, neither did cheating on her, and it was obvious that it was true. The funny part was that she had once been regretful over the fact that they had only taken a few pictures during their relationship. Now, she was thankful that there were only a handful of them.

Maxie sat down on the chair in front of her mirror and reached over behind her tear stained blue eyes until she touched one of them and grabbed it from the place between the mirror frame and the actual mirror. She looked down at it, the first picture that they took, that Christmas, at the mall. The one that she begged him to take. Immediately she saw the tear fall onto the picture, her tear, falling directly between the two of them. "I hate you…" she whispered as she pulled the picture up to her eye level and tore it in half. "I hate you!" Anger quickly filled in the hole that was once empty from the pain, and, in that anger, Maxie reacted as she often did when she was upset: completely erratically. With great fury she reached over and grabbed each and every one of the pictures that they had taken together and tore them into pieces, big pieces, then small pieces, until they were like small chunks of memory that had been regressed into torn up confetti. When the final picture was rendered useless, she watched as all the pieces lay on the ground, scattered around a small area of the room. She stepped onto them, not caring about the fact that there was still a part of her heart that found the memories to be fond, worth saving.

Maxie plopped herself onto the bed, head first, burying herself into her pillows, or more precisely her problems. As she clasped her hands together she felt it, the cold metal bracelet that surrounded her wrist. Briefly, she pulled her head up and looked at it. She had thought it was so beautiful before, and anyone who had looked at it would think the same, but for Maxie, the bracelet no longer meant what it once did. Now, it was a symbol of betrayal, of a love that no longer had any meaning. The anger came to her again and she ripped it off her wrist so harshly that the clasp that kept it around her wrist caused a thin but still noticeable cut. The blood dripped on the metal, staining the mineral a brownish-red as the blood quickly dried. Not wanting to see it anymore, nor be reminded of the time that he had given it to her, Maxie threw it against the wall, a feeling of satisfaction passing over her as she saw it slide down, and then it was gone, because it was only a little bit of satisfaction, not enough to make the pain go away.

Rather than continue to bury her face into the pillow, Maxie turned around until her back was placed on the comforter, she looked at the ceiling above her. She used to do the same thing when they were going out, even before, when she would think about him and everything that he had done for her so selflessly. She should have believed her father, she should have believed Mac when he said that Damian would only end up hurting her. Why didn't she believe him? He was almost always right in the end. But, he got his wish, didn't he? His little girl finally ended up getting away from someone who could only do bad things to her. Mac would be happy, he would be so happy. It was good to know that her misery was at least causing one person to be happy.

General Hospital-

While it was true that Bobbie wanted to focus her attention solely on Lois and what was going on with her, it was also true that, as a chief nurse, she had to think about the patients who she wasn't quite as connected to. But, if there was one thing that could be said about Bobbie Spencer it was that she spent a lot of time getting to know each and every one of her patients so that they felt like they actually mattered to her instead of just being people that she looked over. Bobbie knew how it felt to think that the people around her didn't care, both inside and outside the hospital. She didn't want that kind of feeling to be something that her patients had to deal with.

"And here we see the wonderful Barbara Jean Spencer at work. A different kind of work, with much less… raunchy décor…"

"And how does your office look, back in New York City, where you belong?" Bobbie asked, not turning around. Why did she need to turn around? She heard the voice of a man who she once loved with all her heart, but now hated with every fiber of her being. "I'm sure that there are plenty of hints as to your love of the loose woman…"

"I only loved one loose woman, you."

Bobbie laughed, "If I could believe that, then you really would be one of the most convincing lawyers on the face of the earth…"

"Who said I wasn't?"

"And there you go with the self-expanding ego. Whenever a person doesn't tell you want you want to hear in order to make yourself feel better you go and say it yourself. It must take a lot of work, keeping up with an act that takes up that much effort. How do you do it?"

"I've had lots of practice…"

"I'm sure you have."

"Come on, Bobbie, we had a lot of good times with one another, didn't we? Remember the way that we were when we were younger?"

"I remember how you were when you still had hair," Bobbie reached up and rubbed the huge bald spot that had managed to kill all the hair that was there. She remembered when John had a nice healthy amount of hair, the way it felt when she rubbed her hands through it. "I'm not sure that you might be able to. I'm sure that you've managed to somehow push out every aspect of your humanity in order to make sure that you're more effective with your job."

"Some people would say that I'm the ultimate humanitarian, Bobbie. Think about all the people that I'm protecting by keeping those bastards off the streets. Think of all the kids and young girls that could get killed in the crossfire, or are used as little more than sex objects…"

"You mean like you did for me?"

John shook his head, "You know what, you can try and play the moral high ground all you want, but we both know that you wanted to do that…"

Bobbie turned around, "I didn't want to do it, John. I didn't think that I had a choice. I was a teenager, I was stupid. I kept on thinking that if I managed to do something for someone that they could keep me safe, keep me secure. That was why I did it, eventually I managed to tell myself that it really was the right thing to do, but don't think that now, now that I'm older, I don't see what I did for exactly what it was. I was a fool for thinking that I needed to conform to anyone's ideals of what I should have been doing. Maybe I wouldn't have been able to do something that made me as much money as working for Ruby did, but at least it would have been something that let me keep my self-respect. I would have easily given up the life that I had to flip burgers at some burger shack if I knew that it was an option."

"That's right, Barbara Jean, the martyr, the person who everyone needs to feel sorry for on one hand, but happy for because she brought herself up from the dregs of society that she was born into. And you say that I'm the one with the ego problem…"

Around the corner, Carly was on the phone with Courtney, unable to hear anything that was going on between her parents, one being a man who she hadn't even met, let alone known was her father. Her mind was on more important things, like the wellbeing of her children, and her husband. "Yeah, I know you wanted me to call you when we found out something about Lois, but we haven't yet. I just wanted to make sure that Michael and Morgan are all right. Especially Michael, he was there when Dillon found out, wasn't he?"

"Michael's doing fine, he went to sleep a little while ago. Thankfully our visit to the zoo couldn't have come at a better time, all that walking made him really tired, so tired that he didn't even really think about what was going on with Lois. He asked a few questions, but he's pretty confident in the hospital and their ability to make her all better."

"I wish we could say something to him that would help him know for sure, but until we realize just what is going on with Lois we can't be certain one way or the other."

"How's Sonny?" Courtney asked, knowing that her brother must have been going through horrible turmoil. Lois was his best friend, there was nothing more important to him than the people that he loved, and he loved Lois in the same way that he loved Courtney, like a sister. In a lot of ways, Lois was closer to Sonny than she could ever hope to be. Lois had seen things that Courtney hadn't, she had seen Sonny grow up, she had seen him as a boy becoming the man that he now was. Was Courtney a little jealous? Yes, but that didn't mean that she wanted Lois to get hurt, far from it…

"You know Sonny, he's trying to find a way to make this all better. I don't even know what he's up to, really. I didn't feel like staying around and watching him brood. I said that I would be here for him if he needed me, he knows how to find me. Besides, I was going to try and see if my mother knew anything that we didn't know, that way I could at least give him something that would make him feel better… or worse."

"And if it's bad news?"

"Sonny would rather know one way or the other about Lois, Courtney," Carly said softly, "I know that."

"You're right," Courtney sat down on the couch, she was using her cell phone now instead of the house phone, but she was still at Sonny's penthouse just in case something happened, just in case someone called, or if Michael needed someone to be there for him. "How's Dillon doing?"

"Dillon? Why?"

"Carly, come on," Courtney scoffed slightly. "Lois is a member of Dillon's family, and even though they don't know each other very well, I know that Dillon likes Lois, he's fond of her. I remember him talking about seeing her when she came with Brook. He kind of looks up to her as a person who managed to get away from the family and start her own life, doing something that didn't have the Quartermaine stamp of approval, but doing it anyway."

"Dillon has Jason to admire for that, Courtney, why does he need Lois for?"

"Maybe because Lois and Dillon have more common interests than Dillon and Jason?" What did Dillon and Jason have in common, interest wise anyway? Yes, when he came to Port Charles at first the boy tried working for Lorenzo, despite his age, and Lorenzo, evil bastard that he was, used Dillon. Even though it was just for the little things, there was still a chance that Dillon could have gotten hurt because of his involvement with Lorenzo, and Alcazar was all right with that. While it was never bad to say that a person's death was a good thing, Courtney didn't really care. She was thankful on so many levels that Lorenzo Alcazar was dead. And not just because he had cost Courtney and Jason their baby, and their chance of ever having another one.

"He seemed fine when we came into the hospital," Carly said, thinking back to the way that Dillon acted. She omitted the part about Sonny attacking him verbally, because Sonny didn't mean it, he was just acting like he always acted when someone that he cared about was in danger, recklessly. "I don't know where he is, last I heard he was trying to get in touch with Ned to tell him what had happened."

"Maybe I should try and call him, just to make sure." Courtney couldn't help but try and be motherly towards Dillon, despite the fact that they weren't exactly that far apart in age. Still, Courtney was responsible, at least on some level, for Dillon's wellbeing, and she wasn't going to fail in that job.

"If you want to call him, call him, you don't have to ask permission from me."

"I wasn't, I was just thinking aloud."

"Oh," Carly said softly. "Listen, I'm going to go and look for my mom now, I'll call you just in case anything happens, and, if anything happens on your end…"

"Yeah, don't worry, you'll be the first one to know." Courtney hung up the phone and placed it on the cushion next to her. Why did it always seem that the drama followed them and soaked them in like a sponge?

"You know, I tried to be nice to you, Bobbie, I really did, but maybe being nice to you was just stupid…"

"You wouldn't know nice if it bit you on the…"

"Careful how you speak to me, Barbara Jean, remember the things that I can do to you…"

Carly heard the threat as she walked towards her mother, surprised that she was so close to Bobbie without even knowing it. "I don't know who you are, but you'd better stay the hell away from my mother!"


	36. Might Regret In Time

Bobbie was stunned to see the sudden appearance of her daughter, at the most inopportune time imaginable, and stating clearly the connection that Bobbie and Carly had. She watched in horror as John turned around to face his own daughter, as if everything started to flow in incredibly slow motion, her entire world seemed to rip apart at the stitches. "Carly!"

Carly waited until she could see John Durant's face. When she saw the man who she did not know to be her father, she sneered, "I know who you are. You're the bastard who is going to try and make it seem like my husband and my best friend are horrible people…"

Durant smiled, "You must be Carly Corinthos. I never really look at your pictures, because you're basically nothing to me…"

"I don't care what I am to you, Durant. Just stay the hell away from my family…"

"I'm afraid I can't do that, Carly," John replied. "You see, I'm in town for one reason and one reason only, to take down the people that you love. You might want to stay out of my way, unless you want to get taken down in the process…"

"If you even think about hurting the people that I love, I can guarantee that I will make your life a living hell…"

"Let me guess, you're going to use the same tactics that your husband would want to use on me…"

Carly grinned, "I'm way more dangerous than Sonny could ever hope to be, I'm a woman, Durant, I can do things, say things, present things in ways that would make your head spin. Never underestimate me…"

"Carly, please, stop it…" Bobbie begged, wanting to get John out of the room before he realized something was up. Hopefully he wouldn't, but she wasn't going to take that chance. Everything that she had worked so hard to prevent seemed to be coming up against her. And the only person that she could blame was herself.

"Why are you even talking to my mother?" Carly asked, not listening to her mother's plea, it was something that she tended to do, never listen to Bobbie.

"Ah, your mother," John looked back and forth between the two of them. There was a light resemblance. "I can see a little bit of the connection between the two of you, but, I can see something else… something I can't quite put my finger on."

"Answer the question."

"Your mother and I… we're… how should I put this? We're old friends. I was once a frequent… customer of hers. I take it you don't take after your mother in that way… although you still find some way to walk the fine lines of the law. Better than walking the streets like Bobbie did…"

Not settling with only a slap, Carly socked Durant, chipping a nail in the process and sending him back into the wall. "You know, it's people like you who made my mother the person that she used to be, made her make the decisions that she made, decisions that didn't just impact her, they impacted everyone around her, from her brother to myself. You might be a powerful person now, Durant, but you're still a man, and I can still take you down."

"You've got her right hook," John brought himself up to his feet, wiping away the blood that leaked out of the corner of his mouth. "And her fiery attitude."

"Unlike my mother, I'm quite capable of kicking your ass, in heels, no less. Do you know how much one of these would hurt in the right area? Or the wrong area for you, I suppose. Don't think I don't know where to hit… and don't think that I won't take the chance the second it comes up…"

"I'll pass on another round with you, Carly. At least for right now. Who knows, we might end up getting into another tussle, and this time, I'll be more prepared for you." John walked passed the two women, wondering just what it was that he saw in Carly, why it seemed so familiar.

"Mama?" Carly glanced over to Bobbie, who was a pale, ghostly white. "Mama, are you all right? Is everything okay? Do you need me to give you a ride home or something?"

Bobbie was silent for a moment, trying to gain her bearings again after everything that had happened to her. She could breathe easily, at least somewhat, knowing that neither father nor daughter had made the particular connection. Bobbie could see the Durant in Carly, she was always able to see it, that was how she knew that Carly was John's child and none of the other men that she… serviced. Why did everything have to come back and haunt her? Hadn't she paid for her sins enough when Carly came back into her life looking to destroy her for doing what she did? Unable to keep the tears from falling down, Bobbie felt them trickle, but continued to stay silent.

Carly was worried about her mother, who was usually one of the strongest people that she ever knew. Reaching over, Carly gently motioned her mother to sit down in one of the nearby chairs and hugged her. "Hey, what's wrong?"

"I hate him…"

"I know you do, mom… I hate him, too."

Bobbie looked over, her eyes stained with her tears, listening to her daughter say that she hated her father, and, deep inside of her, Bobbie felt horrible for not telling her daughter the truth, but she couldn't. She just couldn't.

Elsewhere in the hospital, Sonny paced around, still looking for answers that he wanted, needed, but continued to be refused. Who did he have to pay off in order to get some information? It wasn't like he was asking for something that was so hard to obtain.

"I want you gone…"

"I'm the only one who happens to care about Lois out of the two of us, Ned, or have you forgotten about the whole 'I didn't cause her to get into a car accident' thing?"

"Don't pull that crap on me, Sonny, you're dangerous and I don't want you anywhere near Lois. Not now, not ever."

Sonny glared at Ned, "I'm not going anywhere, Ned. Lois is my best friend, you've always known that. I'm not going to sit around at home while she could be…"

"She's not going to…"

"If she does," Sonny stepped up and got in Ned's face, "I'll know exactly who to blame…"

"How do I know that this wasn't just some ploy by one of the many people who want to see you dead? That they finally started attacking people other than your family, they started attacking your friends as well…" Ned wasn't afraid of Sonny, although he probably should have been, "face it, Sonny, you're a thug."

"Dad!" Brook finally came out of her hiding space at the chapel, Damian was a few steps behind her, watching to make sure that nothing happened between the two men who had a feud that he knew very much about.

"Princess…"

Brook ran over to her father and his open arms. She had cried herself out, but she was still very upset. "Thank God you finally came…"

"Yeah, Ned, where were you the whole time?" Sonny asked. "The mother of your daughter, well, one of them anyway, is in the hospital and you can't manage to make an appearance for almost an hour? I know you and Lois are divorced, but I would be here as quickly as I could…"

"Dad…" Damian said sternly, "this isn't helping Lois at all."

Ned looked at the boy, "What are you doing here?"

Brook pushed away from her father, "Dad, Damian came to the chapel and found me… he helped me when I needed someone who I could talk to, someone who would just let me cry…"

"Let me handle this, Brook…" Ned looked away from Brook and back to Damian, "I want you to stay the hell away from my daughter, do you hear me? Your father already puts my ex-wife in danger, and you've managed to corrupt my little brother, I'm not going to let you do the same thing to Brook."

"I'm a lot of things, Ned, but I'm not going to corrupt anyone, not Dillon and certainly not Brook. She needed someone to be there for her, I'm sure you can understand that… and, I don't know if you know this, but I lost my mother. Even though we don't know how Lois is doing, and I hope with every fiber of my being that she's going to be all right, I know what it feels like to think about what would happen if I had to go on without my mother, and, I know how it feels to be forced into doing just that."

"Ned doesn't really know what it means to be without his mom," Sonny replied, "he's always been attached to her like he was still a baby."

"You know what…"

Brook got in between the two of them, "Stop it, all right? I'm not going to let you two keep on fighting right now, not while my mother is in this hospital quite possibly fighting for her life."

"Brook's right," Damian should have known that it would go down the way that it did. His father was a passionate man who cared about people with all his heart, but nobody could say that was always a good thing. In a lot of instances, it could be considered to be a very bad thing. "Look, there isn't any real way that we can tell that screaming at each other will actually impact the health of the patient, but do you really want to take a chance at letting this be the last time you even think about Lois? You both love her, in your own ways, and even though you don't particularly care about one another I'd really like to think that you can put aside your differences long enough for…"

"Mr. Corinthos?" One of the doctors found Sonny, embroiled in a heated argument, just as she suspected. But, there weren't guns blazing, so she counted her blessings. "I'm sorry that it took so long for someone to contact you, but, everything has been taken care of…"

"How is she?" Sonny asked, everyone stopped talking, Lois was more important than their petty squabbles.

"She's got a gash on her head. Thankfully, it doesn't require any stitches, but she'll probably need to cover it up with her hair. We did all the scans that were necessary. She doesn't have a concussion, her head is just fine. The impact knocked her unconscious, but… she's up now."

"Can I see her?" Ned asked.

"Actually, she's asking for her daughter and Mr. Corinthos alone. Right now I think it would be in her best interest to give her want she wants and not surprise her with any visitors…"

Lois's Room-

Why didn't the machine give her any morphine? Didn't they realize how much pain her head was in? It felt like it could explode with the smallest amount of sound. Even when the door opened and the light shone in she had to cover her eyes to avoid further agony. But, when the door was half-closed, she saw the faint outline of two people. "Well… my two favorite people in the world."

"Lois…"

"Ma!" Brook rushed over and hugged her mother, finding the tears again, but they were tears of joy, not tears of sadness. "I thought… I thought that…"

"Please, Brookie, it would take a hell of a lot more to keep me down than a simple little car accident. How are you?"

"I was doing bad… but then Damian found me and helped me through it. Now that you're all right, everything's going to be better."

Lois held her daughter's hand and looked over at Sonny, "I knew that boy got more than just your looks, Sonny. He helped my Brookie out the same way that you used to help me whenever I would lose the boy that I thought I was going to marry… thank him for me, would you?"

"Dad's here, too…" Brook said. "He really wants to see you…"

"Actually, I just wanted to see the two of you. I'm really tired right now, honey. I should get my rest. Why don't you go tell your dad that I'm all right… I need to talk with Sonny for just one more second."

"All right." Brook kissed Lois on the forehead, "I love you, Ma."

"I love you, too, sweetie." Lois smiled until Brook was gone, and then the smile faded. "Look, I know that you know about the accident, and you probably know what caused it…"

"Ned?"

"Just… don't tell her, all right?" Lois looked at Sonny with pleading eyes. "No matter how mad I am, I never want her to hate her father."


	37. Early Morning Chat

Samsonlove- Yes, it is easy to assume that Bobbie was quite stunned when Carly came out of the blue to confront Durant, but that is exactly what I wanted, which is why I had the chapter break right there. Brook doesn't know that Ned truly caused the accident, and they want to keep it from her because, at least right now, she'd probably get pretty upset at her father. Understandably though it might be, Lois isn't the type of person who wants to relish in the fact that her daughter would hate Ned. All class, that Lois. Yes, Durant really is a one-sided character, but that's all right, because we love him the way that he is. Maxie got upset because of the way that he told her that nothing was happening, and then when she saw them together right after he said that there was nothing between them, hugging, the way that they were hugging, she thought the worst. Ned's a bastard, I really don't like Ned, but he's important to the story this time around, so he has to at least be focused a bit.

Corinthos Household, Morning-

He walked out of his room, throat parched and in dire need of something to drink. There was only a small amount of sunlight that managed to make its way through the balcony door on the top of the penthouse suites, but it was still bright enough for putting his hand in front of his eyes to be a necessity. Damian turned his head away and walked towards the kitchen, his vision no longer blurred a moment later. He opened the refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of water. Since he had moved in there was a little bit more food that was in the fridge at all times, just in case he got a bad case of the munchies during one of his many study sessions. So far it hadn't happened, but it was nice to know that the family was taking the time to adjust to him being around them, much in the same way that he had to adjust being around them. Although they had been together for what seemed to be a lot longer, they were still barely wading through the shallow end of their relationships. Sonny and Damian had a connection with one another, and it was a strong connection but it could still get stronger, and they both wanted it to get stronger. While it was impossible for Sonny and Damian to have a connection with one another that was akin to the one that Sonny had with his other sons, it was not impossible for them to both wish for something that was like the bond that he shared with Michael and Morgan, yet tailored to the more age specific needs between father and son.

The boy hated being up as early as he was up, but, as much as he tried to get back to sleep, he found that he couldn't, that there was simply too much that was going on in his mind and that he really needed to find a way to get rid of the cottonmouth that had vexed him. Sadly, none of the doctor training that he had dealt with the ways to solve a problem so simple as cottonmouth, it was rather simple, find something to drink and it would help the problem go away. Cold bottle of water in hand, Damian slowly made his way back towards the room, breaking the seal that kept it connected to the cap as he walked and pulling the cap off.

He stopped from taking a drink when he looked over to his side as he walked through the hallway of the house. He didn't want to look that way, but he found himself unable to keep his gaze away from it. Damian turned his eyes towards the picture of his mother that was placed on the wall, right below the piano that Sonny had gotten him for Christmas. Damian didn't look at the picture every day, though that was not something that meant that his mother was not frequently on his mind. Far from it, aside from Maxie and his family and friends, Ana-Maria was often one of the last things that he thought about when he went to bed. Even when he was a teenager, she would still come in from time to time and gently press her hand to his forehead, and, even though he was passed the age where he was supposed to enjoy things like that, he did. Sometimes he dreamed of it, the same thing happening, her beautiful figure, no longer suffering through the pain that the cancer caused her, just coming in and looking at him, waking him up with her presence. She was radiant, both in her beauty and in her spirit, and, she would whisper the same thing each and every time, "I'm proud of you."

Given the situation that had happened barely twelve hours before, there was no wonder why Ana-Maria had found herself implanted into Damian's immediate memory. The things that he spoke to Brook Lynn about weren't things that he really liked to talk about. He had told Maxie and his father, and that was about it. Some of it was used to console Dillon when Lila had died, but he kept a lot of the feelings that pertained to his experiences dealing with his losing his mother to himself, until the night before. He knew that it would help Brook deal with the things that she was going through, and that was the only reason why he told her. He didn't want to see her so sad, he wanted to help her realize that, even if the worst did happen, it didn't mean that she was gone forever. Luckily for Brook, Lois made it out all right. It was a bittersweet moment. How many other people had gotten that lucky? How many other children had found their prayers being answered? And, more pressingly, why couldn't one of those children have been Damian himself?

"I miss you, mom," he whispered, trying to keep himself from saying it too loud. Not only because he didn't want to wake anyone up, but because he didn't want to wake anyone up and let them know that he was busy going through one of the most private and painful moments that he could go through: coping with his otherwise crippling loss.

With the moments that he spent in front of the picture over, Damian made his way back to the room, no longer fearful of the rays of sunlight that had previously blinded him. But, as soon as he got towards his room he saw a figure standing out on the balcony. Even though he was a good few stories above the ground, his first inclination was to call someone. Max, Jason, someone, just in case it was a person who meant him and his family ill harm. Damian may well have been able to deal with the problem himself, but, since the last time that he took matters into his own hands resulted in a murder that would forever haunt him, he was more than content to let other people do the work that, sadly, Damian himself was born into.

The fears became unfounded when he realized who was standing out there. Not someone who would ever purposefully harm him and his family. Far from it, the person that was standing on the balcony was the man who would do anything and everything in his power to protect Damian and the rest of his family, the man who had done everything he could to keep them safe, even when it bordered on the insane. As soon as he opened up the sliding door he felt the bitter air strike his partly unprotected body. Socks, sweats and a short-sleeved t-shirt didn't exactly provide the best protection against the will of Mother Nature. And what was Sonny wearing? A suit, of course. "Dad? What are you doing out here? It's barely after six in the morning…"

Sonny had often found himself looking out at the city of Port Charles from high atop his balcony. As a young boy, Sonny found that the image in his head was something that was very much like the sight that he was seeing at that moment. But, even though he knew that, in some ways, he lorded over Port Charles, mightier than basically all others, he also knew that victory that was brought upon him by power was a hallow victory, one that didn't mean nearly as much as it could have, or even should have. No, the true victories that Sonny won were those that were fought in the home. The spoils of his war were his children, his family.

The crime lord slowly turned his body to look over at his youthful child. How it pained Sonny at times to even look at Damian and know that there was so much that Sonny had missed out on. The baby book that he had been given was a wonderful present, but those were just pictures, they were nothing else. Sonny didn't have any tangible experiences that connected him to his own child aside from the ones that he had earned through the time that Damian had been in Port Charles, and, while he wouldn't give any of them up for any price in the world, not all of them were exactly what a person would consider pleasant.

"I didn't wake you, did I?" Funny the way that he avoided the question. Sonny was good at that, bringing any and all conversation back to the person or people who were around him, because when Sonny talked about himself he felt that he made himself far too vulnerable, and Sonny Corinthos hated to be vulnerable.

"No, you didn't wake me up, I couldn't really sleep, tough night and all." Damian walked over, the dew and other perspiration that had come from the night soaking into his socks, doing little to help regulate his temperature. Luckily, he had a pretty good immune system, and, a rather decent health program at hand. The boy had never been up early enough to see Port Charles in the early hours of the morning, but now that he was he could see that it was beautiful. As beautiful as the sunset was from the perch high above the city, the sunrise was just as beautiful, because it seemed all the more special. He longed to share such a time with Maxie, and, perhaps, eventually, a family of his own, though plans for such an endeavor would certainly wait. Much as he loved the girl, he wasn't ready to take that plunge. He needed to be more stable, and he wasn't nearly as stable as people wanted to believe him to be.

"This is so serene," he said softly, basking in the rays that had once caused him a slight amount of discomfort, feeling the warmth of the sun as it crashed upon his body, lighting up his face and his eyes. "But, as beautiful as it might be, I'm willing to bet that you're not out here to take in the sights, are you, dad?" Damian turned his head over to Sonny, who himself had returned to looking over the edge of the balcony. "You're thinking about Lois, aren't you?"

"Is it that obvious?"

"Only to people who know that you're not nearly as bad as the media wants to paint you. The people who know that you care more about people than most other people who claim to care about humanity can even hope to understand. Luckily for me, I happen to be one of them, one of the rare few. There are times when you confuse the hell out of me, dad, but I never forget how much you care."

"I could have lost her last night, son," Sonny thought of her, ignoring the picturesque view that he had paid an arm and a leg for while he focused on something that was even more important to him, his best friend. "I never thought about what I would do without Lois. Back when we were kids she was always the one who would worry about me, because I would get into fights with kids who were twice my side and she thought that they would beat me into a pulp."

"Did they?"

"Come on now," Sonny snickered, "your old man might not be the biggest person on the block, but I'm more than capable of taking care of myself and the people that I care about." It stemmed in part from growing up with Deke as his stepfather, the man who would take potshots at both Sonny and his mother, the man who Sonny would throw himself in front of, just to protect the woman who was, at the time, the most important person in his life. "I don't know, I guess I always thought that I would be the one to leave Lois, because of my life, the choices that I make, the danger that I put myself in… I never thought that there was even the slightest chance that it could be the other way around."

"Nobody knows what's going to happen from one day to the next, dad. You and I… we know that better than most people."

"Yeah… we do. And, even if we weren't connected as much as we are, we would always be connected because of what we ended up losing."

"I wish we didn't have to worry about being connected through something so painful…"

"So do I…"

"Even though you know that Lois is going to be fine, that there's nothing wrong with her aside from that nasty bump she has on her head… why did it keep you awake at night? Why couldn't you get some sleep? You know she's fine, dad, why wasn't that enough?"

"Because I'm upset… and when I'm upset I can't sleep." Sonny sighed, "I can't believe that he would do something like that to her…"

"Who?"

"Ned," Sonny replied, somewhat shocked that his own child didn't know what had happened. Then he remembered what Lois had said about not wanting Brook to hate her own father. In theory, Sonny believed the same thing, in practice, he realized that not hating a parent wasn't nearly as easy as it seemed on paper. "Look, what I'm about to tell you… keep it away from Brook Lynn, all right?"

"Sure, I promise I won't tell her anything."

"Last night, Ned and Lois were at the restaurant where I took Carly out to eat. I didn't think anything about it, I know that they still care about each other, or I thought they did anyway. Ned made Lois pretty upset at the place, and she walked off in tears. I didn't think anything of it… and then when we were leaving Courtney called the phone and told me that my best friend was in the hospital. I knew what had happened, and when I saw Lois last night she told me the same thing. She was so upset at Ned that she wasn't thinking clearly, it's his fault that she got into the wreck."

"I'm sure he didn't mean to…"

"I don't care if he meant it or not, all I know is that someone that I care about very much was almost killed because her ex-husband is a selfish bastard who doesn't care about her feelings. I don't even see why Lois bothers to hang around him. He hurt her so much, and he's obviously going to just keep on doing it. It doesn't make any sense to me, son. Honestly, I can't comprehend it."

"Maybe that's because it isn't something that you need to deal with," Damian replied. "Dad, Ned and Lois are connected forever through their daughter, the same way that you and Carly are through Michael and Morgan. Even though you might be upset with each other, there's still going to be that connection. You and Carly have separated before, you told me that much, but you came back together because of that. Ned and Lois are always going to love one another, just like you and Carly."

"I wish I could believe that," Sonny said sadly. "And I know that you want to think that… but you know that your mother and I have a very different relationship than most people…"

"I know that you don't love my mother."

"Excuse me?"

"Dad, don't worry about it, you're not going to hurt my feelings or anything."

"No, but you can hurt mine," Sonny wasn't offended, but he was at least a little dismayed. "Son, I do love Ana. I might not have been in love with her when… when you were conceived, but as soon as I realized who you were, as soon as I grew to love you as my own child I also grew to love your mother for giving me the chance to even know you, to feel such a strong tie with you. When you say that I don't love your mother… you're wrong."

"Really?"

"Yes, really. How could I not love a person who gave me you?" Sonny reached over and placed his arm around the boy, "When I look at you, Damian, I see so much potential, all the things that I feared I would never see in a child of mine. You embody everything that can beat back my fears. You're more important to me than you can ever know."

"I…" he stumbled, not sure what to say, not sure if he could say anything… or at least anything that didn't sound completely inane. Still, he needed to say something. "Thanks… that means a lot."


	38. Remember When?

Samsonlove- I hated Ned with Skye, in fact, in the beginning, when I was watching GH, they were together and it made me hate Skye, too. I don't know why it changed, but it did, and Skye is probably my favorite female on the show right now, I love her and I love Robin Christopher. The plot that is springing forth from Maxie's misinterpreted view on the actions that were taken by Damian and Brook will spread out into a lot of smaller little sub-plots. Very much the snowball effect. Yes, Bobbie is understandably worried about how this will impact her family, and yes, eventually, Carly and Durant will realize their connection to one another, and, when that happens, look for another snowball effect.

General Hospital-

The door to Lois's room opened as quietly as possible. She knew that it was never a good thing to wake up a patient in the early hours of the morning, but, as it turned out, she didn't even need to worry about waking Lois up, because she already was up. "Only you could make it out of a car accident and still look just as lovely as ever…"

Lois smiled, "You're just trying to make me feel better, Monica."

"Maybe…"

"Well, keep going, please. I need something to keep me happy."

Monica laughed softly, "I'm sorry, I would have come in to see if you were all right earlier, but I had some of my own patients that I needed to take care of, and you know how much the hospital frowns upon the doctors looking in on their family."

Lois turned her eyes away for a moment. The word stung her harshly. 'Family.' The way that Monica said it made it sound like she was a part of their family still, but, the way that most of the people in the mansion acted around her it seemed more like she was just tolerated because of the connection that they had with her. If she wouldn't have brought Brook Lynn with her, they would have never let her in the house. They didn't really treat her like family. Especially Ned.

Lois could see the dramatic and quick shift in Lois's mood. It was always hard to see someone like Lois, someone who was so bright and vibrant just turn her head away and look so solemn. Monica walked over to the head of the bed and stood by her side. "I'm sure that you've got a thousand questions right now, Lois. I've got the time to answer almost all of them, if you want me to."

"When can I be released?"

That was always the first question that people tended to ask, unless it was something serious, then it was 'am I going to live.' In most cases, the answer was a positive one, but sometimes it wasn't. Sometimes Monica just didn't know when they would be able to leave, or if they would even make it to the next month. She was a doctor, and sometimes miracles happened, but she wasn't a miracle worker. In Lois's case, however, the news was good. "I'm sure once the doctor comes in and sees you and sees that you don't have any problems going on you'll be able to get out of here and come back to the mansion."

The mansion… no, she wouldn't be returning to the mansion. At least not yet. Maybe eventually, but, for the time being she didn't want to be around those people. Monica and Alan weren't on the list, but Ned and Tracy and even Edward on some small scale… they were. Rather than being entirely selfish in her questions, Lois knew that there were more important things to worry about. "What time did Brook Lynn leave?"

"Pretty late. You must have already been asleep, after everything that they had given you while they ran their tests. You should know that you're pretty fortunate to get away with just a few bumps and scratches, Lois. Your car… it didn't make it out nearly as well as you did."

"I've got insurance, they'll handle it." She hated herself for being so stupid that she almost cost herself her own life, that she almost ended up killing herself and taking herself away from her daughter, her world, simply because of the way that one idiotic man acted. She thought she was over the way that Ned treated her, the way that he pushed her aside whenever the family called him. But, apparently she wasn't.

"Ned took her home…"

"I'm glad."

"You know… he was really worried about you, Lois."

She would have scoffed, but it would have been rude, and she didn't want Monica going and telling the family how upset she was at Ned. No, their problem was their problem, not the family problem, although she knew it would be impossible to keep it a secret from the Quartermaine's for long, especially someone like Tracy, she would take as much time as she had and use it to her advantage. Quickly changing the subject, Lois grinned, "You know what's funny?"

"What's that?"

"The fact that you're one of the people in the Quartermaine family that I get along with the most, now that Lila's gone, you might be that person completely."

"And why is that so funny? I like to think that I can be a pretty reasonable person from time to time, it stems from not having any Quartermaine blood inside of me, I'm able to fight it off, at least a little bit."

"I mean… think about it, you had a thing for Ned when you first met him… you had the hots for my husband, Monica!"

Monica blushed. It was true. The first time she met Ned Ashton she thought he was an incredibly handsome individual, and he was, but, at the time she had no idea that he was her nephew by marriage. Good thing they found out before it was too late. "I had no idea who he was when I thought about starting a relationship with him."

The grin found itself being subdued within moments. Lois looked down at the ground again. Monica didn't know who he was when he was when she first met him, and neither did Lois. It was a different kind of person, in the end at least, but at the core of the problem was the same. Ned had fooled both of them, at least for a little while, into thinking that he was someone else, someone who was better than the person that he truly was. For Lois, it was Eddie Maine, charismatic, with a voice to die for and a heart that never seemed to stop beating for her. How foolish she was. And he was able to fool her into thinking that Ned Ashton would be just as exciting for her. She fell for that ruse. Never again.

"Lois, I don't know what happened, I don't know how you got into that car accident. The police came around and they were basically told that you were still too out of it, that you wouldn't be able to tell them much until you recovered a little more. So, before you check out, or even after, you might be asked to give your statement. Regardless, know that I'm grateful that you're all right. If not for myself then for your daughter. She was so worried about you."

"I didn't mean to worry her." And there was no statement to make. She would say that the accident was entirely her fault, because it was. There wasn't even another car on the road when she crashed. She was just acting completely irrational, like a woman scorned. So then maybe it wasn't her fault, maybe it was Ned's fault, but that would never stick on an insurance claim.

"Once she found out that you were all right, she managed to act a lot better about it." Monica began to walk away, "If you need anything from me, just feel free to have one of the nurses page me and I'll be here as soon as possible."

"Thanks, Monica," Lois replied as the woman walked out the door. Yes, Monica was a good person at heart. Too bad the rest of the people around her weren't nearly as good, or even had hearts. With Monica gone, Lois threw her head against the pillow, hoping to catch some much needed sleep, but, she had been asleep for so long after the accident, and her mind was just running with too many thoughts. It made sleep almost impossible.

Corinthos Household-

While Damian may have retreated back into his room looking for some more shut eye time, Sonny didn't. He couldn't. Once Sonny was up he tended to stay up, and, given his nature and frequent bouts of insomnia, it wasn't exactly something that he enjoyed doing. Sadly, it also wasn't something that he could really hope to counteract. Yes, there were sleeping pills that he could get, but the last thing he wanted to do was get dependant upon some of them, because he didn't want to become that kind of person. Not him. Not ever. He'd seen the way that the pills and the drugs managed to screw up people's lives, he would never through himself into the same mistakes, the same choices.

Jason walked in to the house a moment later, seeing Sonny sitting at his desk, by the phone. "You wanted to see me?"

"You said that you were going to have Stan look in to John Durant's past, Jason. Did he find anything that can help us make sure that the bastard doesn't come attacking us or our family?"

Sadly, Jason had to do something that he rarely ever did, he had to admit that he wasn't able to do something that Sonny wanted him to do, though it was no fault of his own. Nonetheless, Jason felt responsible. "Sonny, Durant's good… I mean, real good. On paper he seems like he's a candidate for being a Pope."

"Everyone has some skeletons in their closet…"

"But Durant's closet has a lock that even we can't hope to break open."

Angry at the failure of the operation, Sonny slammed his fist down on the desk. "Dammit! I hate this, Jason. I hate that I have to worry about something, someone, like John Durant coming in and trying to take me apart. Why did this have to happen right now? I've got so much on my shoulders…"

Upon hearing the loud sound that came from the living room, Damian, who wasn't even able to get much sleep after the conversation that he had with his father, walked out of the room, dressed and ready for school. His last day of school before he had to spend another three days at the hospital. It was a slippery slope. Jason was there as well, and he heard the last part of Sonny's statement. "Dad… is… is there anything that I can do to help?"

Sonny turned around in his chair, looking at the boy who just offered help, and something inside of him just snapped. It wasn't about Damian, though. It was about Durant. "I can't believe that he thinks that you're involved in my business…"

"People are always going to think that about me, dad." As much as he hated to admit that it was true, it was. People were always going to think that he was just another mobster, from the same mold as his father and his uncle. They didn't even have to know that he had killed a man in order to think that he had already killed at least one person. Some days it was harder than others, the guilt, but it was always there. "But as long as we both know that it isn't true… then who cares, right?"

"I care…" Sonny mumbled. "I don't want you to get taken down simply because you're my child."

"Dad, everything's going to be fine." The boy looked over to Jason, staring into his azure eyes and begging for some sort of support. There were times when Sonny would listen to Damian, but they were few and far between. However, Sonny almost always listened to Jason, his right hand man.

"He can handle himself, Sonny," Jason commented. "He's older than Michael and Morgan, he knows how to take care of himself."

"I swear… if John Durant does anything to hurt my family, I'm going to find a way to take him down, permanently."

Damian felt his blood run cold. His father was talking about killing Durant, that much was obvious. What wasn't obvious to anyone but Damian himself was that Sonny was also speaking about killing Carly's father. How he yearned to say something, to inform the two people in the room with him of the truth, but he couldn't. It wasn't his secret to tell.

"I want you to tell Stan to keep on looking, Jason."

"Sonny, even if I tell Stan…"

"I don't care what you tell Stan, I don't care what Stan says! I pay him for his services, even when they're not worth it, so if I want something done, it gets done!"

There was that rage inside of Sonny that scared both Jason and Damian, the boy more than the man, because Jason had seen it before, many times. Damian, on the other hand, had only seen hints of what lurked beneath Sonny's small frame, the rage that could tear a person apart without even a second thought. It really was something that was extremely scary, and he was supposed to be old enough to handle those things.

"All right, Sonny. I'll make sure to contact Stan first thing. I don't know what he can do, but I'll tell him to keep on checking every possible angle until he finds some sort of tangible evidence against the man."

"Thanks… and, sorry…"

"Don't be, you're worried about the safety of your family. Nobody can fault you for wanting to keep the safe, no matter the cost. I certainly can't."

Sonny nodded. His anger had cooled quickly, as it frequently did, but it was still there. He looked at his son and saw that there was that brief hint of fear in his eyes, fear not for his father, but fear of his father. Sonny got up and walked passed Damian, "Everything's going to be all right, son. Trust me."

"I do…"

"Don't you have class soon?"

"Yeah… I do… I should get my stuff and go…" he didn't have class for another hour and a half, but, as much as he hated to admit it, he wanted to get out of the house, just for a little while. He needed stability, he needed to get away from all the anger. Damian had seen what people had always said about his father, about all that unchecked frustration, and he was afraid.


	39. The Changes Made

Samsonlove- I wouldn't go myself, because I hate the idea of having people tell me what to do, and being forced to shave my head, both ideas are highly unappealing, but if that is what you want, then go with it. I suppose Skye did bring out a softer side of Ned, but, like I said, I always hated the character, always, so it was pretty hard for me to step back from that 'Ned must die' mentality and embrace him. I loved Lois as well, which is why I'm using her. The friendship with Monica may well be of my own creation, but I believe that they would have a few things in common. The history with Ned is true, at the very least. Plus, they seemed to be pretty nice to one another, so… yeah.

Story-

Lansing Home-

She felt the emptiness of the bed beside her, not allowing her to stretch her arms over and feel the warm embrace of her husband. It was enough to wake her up from a rather pleasant slumber. Elizabeth opened her beautiful blue eyes slowly, letting them adjust in short spurts as she moved up the bed until her back rested against the board of the bed. Of course, the bed was still a mess. The sheets were wrapped around her body so fully that they almost cut off circulation completely to one of her legs. She did that from time to time: hogged the blankets. Ric would complain about it, especially now that they were back home in Port Charles, where the winters weren't exactly like the winters in the Bahamas or any one of the many exotic locales that they could have gone to for their honeymoon. Instead, they stayed at a quiet little bed and breakfast, not very far away from the state of New York. What Elizabeth and Ric wanted wasn't something fancy and expected of a couple in love for their honeymoon, they wanted something unique, something that spoke to them and the people that they had become, both before they remarried, and after.

Finally able to see clearly, Elizabeth looked over at the clock that was on the counter. She still had plenty of time to lag around before she had to come in for work, so did her husband, but if there was one thing she knew about Ric it was the fact that he liked to get as much sleep as possible, because his job was so demanding that there were times when he didn't get much sleep at all. Since he hadn't complained about anything that would keep him preoccupied the night before, she could only assume that either something had sprung up on him, or that there was something else that he was doing. He would have left a note or something saying that he was going to be otherwise delayed, and she couldn't see such a thing in the immediate vicinity of the room, and, she didn't hear the shower running in the bathroom. They had some fun in that shower.

Finally unwrapping herself from the binding grip that had bewitched her due to her constant motion, Elizabeth, wearing nothing more than a satin low-cut nightgown, walked out into the kitchen, looking for any hints that would give her information as to her husband's whereabouts. She didn't need to look very far. He was there, also still dressed in his own pajamas, by the stove, cooking up breakfast. He looked up at his wife and smiled, which in turn got a smile from Elizabeth as she walked over to the man that she was glad to have back in her life after everything, wrapping her arms around his waist. "You had me worried for a second."

Ric tilted his head down just enough to give her a gentle kiss on the forehead before he returned to making the breakfast that he had hoped to prepare his wife. "If there's one thing that you no longer need to worry about, Elizabeth, it's worrying about me leaving you alone again. I did that once, and I realized just how costly the mistake was, I don't intend on ever doing it again."

There was a time when Elizabeth would have heard Ric say the exact same thing and she wouldn't have believed him. In that moment, however, there was no such doubt. She heard her husband, and she believed every word that came out of his mouth. Not because of some sort of blind loyalty to Ric, but because she had learned that he truly was a different person, someone that she could trust, someone that she could love. "What are you doing?"

"I figured that, since you spend so much time serving people food all day I would surprise you and give you the same treatment that you give everyone else. I realize that the attire might be a little more casual than what we're wearing right now, but…"

"Oh, don't worry about that, I love the way you look in those sweatpants," she grinned impishly, moving her hands down his waist until she got just above the strap line of the pants, ready to dig down, but instead she kept her hands far enough away and pulled them away completely. She may have loved the way that he looked dressed in sweatpants, but she also loved the way he looked when he wasn't dressed in them, or anything else for that matter.

"You still like your eggs scrambled, right?"

"You know, you don't have to do this for me… I really don't mind the fact that I serve people food all day long. In fact, I kind of like it."

"Elizabeth… I want to do this. Please, let me do this. Now, answer the question." It wasn't an order. Far from it. Ric had learned his lesson when it came to ordering people around to do things that he wanted, he never got what he wanted and he always ended up losing something that he deeply cared about as an indirect result.

"Yes, Ric, I love scrambled eggs." Was she offended? No, because she could tell in the way that he inflicted his voice, he wasn't trying to sound domineering, he truly was doing something out of the goodness of his heart, and who was she to even think about throwing something that was so pure back in his face? That would be highly uncalled for. "Is that coffee I smell?"

"Help yourself, it's the brand that you like." He didn't particularly care for it, but it was Elizabeth's morning. Why did Ric do something so romantic, something that didn't exactly seem like something he would do? Because he felt like it. Because as much as he told Elizabeth how much he cared about her, Ric rarely showed it to her in actions aside from kisses and sex, which were good in their own way, but he understood that there were other ways for him to show his wife how much she meant to him.

Elizabeth poured herself a cup of coffee and walked over to the small table that they used in the rare instances where they didn't eat out, or didn't eat alone. Ric was usually very busy doing what he did for the city, and Elizabeth didn't hold it against him. Being the district attorney of a place like Port Charles wasn't exactly easy, she understood that. Sometimes it grated on her, knowing that he wasn't there for her all the time, but she didn't hold it against him.

Ric looked over at Elizabeth as she sat down, and he tried to smile, but he couldn't. No, there was another feeling that crept in and, if only for a brief second, overrode the feeling of joy. "You know, I might end up doing this for you a little more often…"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Ric was silent, stirring the eggs as they turned into something fluffier and easier to look at, let alone eat. "I just mean that… I don't know, should John Durant get what he wants out of his visit here… if he ends up finding a way to take me out of office."

"Honey, don't think that like," Elizabeth pleaded. Ric truly was his hardest critic, and when Ric got down on himself it usually meant that things weren't going too well. She didn't want to see that happen again. "I know who you are, I know what you can do, I know that if you don't want John Durant to take your job, you're not going to let him do it."

"He has a point, though, doesn't he?" Ric asked. "I mean… he knows that I'm not going after my brother nearly as much as I was a year ago… even less than that. Before, I made it my mission to see my brother suffer, and now I can't even do that anymore…"

"Because you're not the same person anymore, Ric. You're a better person now."

"For Sonny, maybe," Ric retorted. "But what about the people of Port Charles, Elizabeth? What about the people who I'm sworn to protect, to keep people like Sonny off the streets so that they can walk them safely at night. I know that Sonny isn't nearly as dangerous as people want to believe him to be, I know that he doesn't knowingly put innocent people at risk, but him being here, him continuing to keep up his business, it puts a black mark on my own job."

"I'm the last person to stick up for Sonny," she may not have hated Sonny as much as Ric once did, but he was still hardly her favorite person on the planet, "but we both know that you can't just toss him in jail for something that he didn't do, and he's never been found guilty of anything that the people before you have brought against him aside from some little misdemeanor… it just seems to me like if Sonny doesn't do anything, then Durant doesn't get to do anything to try and take him down."

"But what are the odds of Sonny not doing anything?" Ric wondered, the eggs now finished, the bacon having finished before it. He slid the eggs onto the plate and took one in each hand, walking them over to the table as he sat down across from his wife. "And if he does do something… what if Durant's right? What if I decide to take my loyalties towards my family and put them ahead of my loyalties towards this city? If I do something like that, doesn't it mean that I should be taken away from the office that I would no longer be fulfilling to the best of my abilities?"

Elizabeth reached over and touched his hand gently, the smile never leaving her face. "Listen to yourself, Ric. You're doing something that we both never thought you would ever do, you're trying to find a way to save your brother from facing time in prison. You're seeing a different color when you used to see only black and white. Whatever the decision might be, I'm sure you'll make the one that you feel the most comfortable with, and I know that I will back you one hundred and ten percent, regardless of that decision."

"Have I really changed that much?" Ric asked his wife.

"You always said that I was the only person who could actually see you for who you were, underneath all the layers that you placed in front of yourself, that I could be that person, Ric, the person who would show you exactly who you were. I did my part, but it would be a lie to say that I was the only person who showed you another aspect of yourself…"

Ric grinned as he poked at his eggs with the fork. "I still can't believe it. You know, sometimes I'll wake up in the middle of the night, afraid that everything around me is going to be different. That I'm not going to have you by my side, that I won't have some sort of strange truce with my brother… that I won't have a nephew that actually treats me like I'm important to him. I'm always afraid that there's just some random person who is giving me this perfect little dream world where everything seems to be going my way."

"This isn't a dream, Ric," Elizabeth replied, touched by his words. "And, even if it was, it wouldn't be the kind of dream that I would want to end, either."

Morgan Household-

Dillon put his cell phone in his pocket as he looked at his bag that was placed on the couch. He had tried calling Georgie, but she wasn't picking up her phone, either of them, cell or home. He wanted someone to talk with, and he hadn't called her all night long because he didn't know anything and his mind was just so preoccupied with finding a way to keep Brook Lynn from collapsing into herself, and later in helping his brother not feel so guilty, even though Dillon truly felt that Ned should have felt incredibly guilty for what he had done, since it was at least partly his own fault that his ex-wife had gotten into an accident. The only reason why Dillon even bothered to help his brother was because of the fact that Ned had helped him so many times in the past, and, it was really hard to look at someone that he still cared about and see them so torn up about their own problems.

"Dammit," Dillon muttered under his breath. He really wanted someone that he could talk to about what had happened. He was so busy asking everyone what they needed that he barely had time to focus on his own problems, the way that he felt about it. And he did want someone that he could confide in. Yes, he had his best friend, but, he also knew that his best friend had problems of his own, as well as finding a way to nurse Brook back to sanity, since Damian was the only one who Brook actually seemed to want, which wasn't very surprising, given the attraction that she had to him.

And then there was Maxie. Dillon hadn't really forgotten about the way that she looked when she walked away from the hospital in a huff, the way that she ignored him, or at least didn't hear him. It was just that in the midst of everything that was crumbling around him, Dillon couldn't spare a moment to check up on one of his oldest and only friends in Port Charles. And what about Lois? Yes, she was all right, but Dillon wasn't a fool. He was a Quartermaine, being a doctor may have coursed through his blood, although it was a calling that he never wished to embrace. Regardless, Dillon knew that there was always a chance that there was something that the doctors, even the ones at General Hospital, couldn't see, couldn't detect, and couldn't fix.

Jason came walking into the house, not expecting to see Dillon there. It was moments like that which made him wonder why he had even allowed the teenager to make the penthouse home. But, he couldn't go back on his word now, Dillon had integrated himself, at least partially, into the life around him. To force the child to find new roots again would be something that the Quartermaine's would do, and Jason never wanted to act like a Quartermaine.

Dillon looked over at Jason and thought for a second about confiding in Jason, telling him about the problems that were bothering him, but, when he looked into those cold blue eyes, he realized that it would probably be for nothing. Jason probably didn't even care about him, he merely tolerated Dillon because it was Courtney's wish. The moment he tried to open his mouth and say something, the doubt that surrounded him caused him to stop.

Jason could tell that there was something that was causing his cousin some sort of anguish, and he didn't want to make it seem like he didn't care, but it was rather hard to make it seem like he did. After all, what could Jason do to help make Dillon feel better? Jason didn't even understand half of what Dillon talked about when they tried to have small conversations. Dillon would always find some way to make it relate to a movie, one that Jason hadn't seen, since he didn't watch many movies. In fact, the infamous day that they tried to get him to watch 'Star Wars' would go down in infamy.

Despite all the favors that Jason had done for Dillon, and there were a lot of favors, Dillon knew that well, it didn't matter. He was still upset at the way that Jason so carelessly ignored the obvious facts that were in front of him. Dillon was completely aware of the fact that when Jason looked like he had something on his mind the last person that he would ever speak about his problems to was Dillon, but Dillon still cared enough to actually ask about them, even if the only answer was something akin to Jason not wanting to talk about it. Why couldn't the same thing be said for Jason?

The bitterness swelling up inside of the teenager, Dillon grabbed his jacket from the place that it rested atop the couch, erroneously forgetting about the backpack that was on the couch. It didn't really matter, the last place that he wanted to be at was school, he wouldn't even be able to concentrate on his work. Not that he ever did, but in case he needed to make it look like he did, he wouldn't be able to do it. Walking out, he shut the door and headed for the elevator, mumbling to himself, "Thanks for nothing, Jason."


	40. Don't Worry 'Bout It

Kelly's-

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Carly asked Courtney as they walked into the restaurant that was owned by Carly's mother, yet managed predominately by Courtney's father, who was also Carly's father-in-law. "I mean… after everything that happened to Lois last night, I'm not so sure that I should be leaving Sonny alone."

"Sonny's a big boy, Carly," Courtney replied as she pulled out one of the chairs at one of the tables and sat down. "I think he can handle it. After all, Lois is fine. Thankfully…"

"Yeah…"

Courtney looked over at Carly, who was still standing, "You know, you almost sounded like you meant what you just said, almost sounded like you were grateful that Lois didn't end up dead…"

"Courtney!" Carly was not amused, she was very offended. "How could you say something like that to me?"

"Because I know how many times that you've wished that Lois would fall off the face of the Earth, especially now that she's been back in town ever since Christmas. Look, Carly, I'm not trying to accuse you of doing anything that would hurt Lois, I don't even think that you're capable of such a thing, but I'm not going to sit here and try and sooth your battered ego and say that you treat Lois like she's a person that you even think is a human being."

"All right, you win," Carly sat down across from Courtney. "You're right, I don't like Lois at all, in fact, I probably have wished that she would just keel over and die more times than I would care to admit, but last night, when I saw my husband, when I saw the fear in his eyes as he realized that he could be losing someone who was that important to him, I realized that I never wanted Sonny to deal with something like that. I'm not saying that I'm going to start being buddy-buddy with Lois, or that I'll even be able to stomach being around her the next time I see her, but I am saying that… okay, I don't even know what I'm saying."

"I think I know what you're saying, even though I can't tell you what you're saying, because I don't know if I can say it right, either."

Carly sighed, "I really was afraid for her last night, Courtney. And not just because of what she means to Sonny, but because she has a daughter… and there are so many things that would go through my head if something like that happened to me. I would be thinking about what I would be leaving behind, Michael, Morgan, even Damian on some level. I just wouldn't be able to let it take me without a huge fight. I didn't want Sonny or Brook or even Lois to deal with something like that."

"Who knew you could be so humanizing…"

Carly rolled her eyes. "For a best friend, you certainly do rag on me a lot."

"You know I'm only kidding. This back and forth insult fest seems to work for Dillon and Damian." She had overheard a few of their little spats, some of the comments that were flung back and forth were particularly damming, but in the end they were always able to laugh about it and act like nothing had happened. Maybe it was because they were boys, though. "Seriously, though… you might not notice it, Carly, but you have changed a lot recently."

"I think it has to do with the fact that I spent all that time thinking about my father, you know? When Morgan… when he almost died, I thought about everything that I cared about. I knew what it felt like to think that I was going to lose the baby while it was still inside of me… but that was a kind of pain that I've dealt with before." She didn't want to think about it, but it was true, Carly had known the pain of losing a child, as had Courtney. Thankfully, for Carly at least, she was able to have another child. Courtney wouldn't be so lucky. "But the pain of thinking about waking up in the morning and not being able to hold my baby after he had come out of me… that was just something that I never wanted to deal with again, and it really changed me."

"I'm sorry that you weren't ever able to get any leads on your father, Carly," Courtney reached over and touched her hand gently, "I know how important it was to you that you find some sort of information on him. Even with all of Sonny's resources, to not find anything, that must have hurt."

"What hurt more was the way that everyone was trying to tell me that I shouldn't have done it," Carly admitted. "It still hurts me when I think about it, Courtney. The way that Sonny, my mother, even Jason, the way that they all tried to tell me that finding my dad was going to be a bad idea. It's like… it's like they weren't even trying to think of it in another way, they all automatically assumed that I was going to have trouble accepting who my dad really was."

"I'm sure they were just trying to protect you, and, let's face it, when things don't go your way you tend to act a little irrationally."

"Well that's just my right as a woman."

"I know that, but they didn't want to see you get hurt. We all love you, Carly, and even though we know how much pain you go through thinking that your father isn't out there wondering about you and what would have happened if you would have been in his life, there's always going to be something here, in Port Charles, with me and with everyone else. We're always going to be here for you, no matter what."

"Well, if it isn't my favorite daughter, and my favorite daughter-in-law," Mike, coffee in hand, poured the girls' a cup each, just the way that they liked it. Only Corinthos-Morgan brand coffee for the two of them, it would be a sin to drink anything else, just like it would be a sin for him to provide anything else. "Are you here to eat, or just here for something to drink?"

"Both, actually," Carly said, smiling at Mike, "your daughter and I decided that we were going to take one of our infamous days together."

"So, I won't say that I knew that you were going anywhere when Sonny complains about the credit card bill?"

"That's why I love you, Mike, because you know when to keep your mouth shut."

"I stay out of these things as much as possible." The last thing that Mike needed was to deal with distancing himself even more from his son than he already had. "I'll give you two a few minutes to decide on what you want, and then one of you can just flag me down, all right?" It was early, and Elizabeth hadn't arrived yet, but he could handle it.

"Hey, Mike, wait a second, would you?" Carly requested. Mike stopped and turned around again. "Have you seen my mother lately?"

"No, not recently, why?"

"She's just been acting really strange the past couple of days, I just wanted to see if you had talked to her, maybe you knew something."

"No, Bobbie hasn't told me anything, Carly. I'm sorry, if I could tell you anything that would help you, I would."

"No, its fine, I just thought that you might know. If you think that you might have an idea… please."

"You'll be the first person I call. And if you…"

"Don't worry about it, I'll pass it along," Carly nodded as Mike walked away. She then sighed, distraught over the fact that she still didn't know why her mother was acting so oddly as of late. It started at the docks, and then it was the other night at the hospital. What was going on?

Scorpio Household-

She tried to wake up rejuvenated, but she couldn't. The sting of betrayal was still too fresh and painful. She wanted to wake up a completely different person, no longer worried about being with Damian Zuniga-Corinthos, casting away another part of herself that was no longer of any use to her, but she couldn't. Try as she might to have forgotten about him, she couldn't. She loved him far too much, she still did, and that was why it hurt as much as it did, because she cared about him that much. It wasn't like that with Kyle, it hurt, but once she realized that she never truly loved him, it didn't hurt as much. If someone tried to say that she didn't truly love Damian she would tell them that they were full of it, because she did.

Maxie slipped out of her bed and felt the bare spot where her bracelet had once been held. The missing link made her more than a little sad, and she wanted to find it again, but she fought the urge. No, it wasn't going to be the same anymore, and it would only serve to remind her of what she had lost, which she didn't want. She didn't want any more painful memories. She just wanted to move on with life, like he had. If only she would have known that it was coming. Never had she thought about him cheating on her… but then Sonny was his father. Like father like son. He would hate that comparison, but she didn't care because it was the truth.

As soon as she made her way towards the vanity she felt the chopped up pieces of picture that pricked at the skin of her foot when she stepped on them. She looked down and felt the tears well up in her eyes. Was it really over? Yes, it was. She couldn't deny what she had seen, and she had seen the two of them holding each other tightly. Maybe he knew about her being at Kelly's and just pretended that he didn't know so that she wouldn't think that he really was cheating on her, maybe that was why he sounded like he truly meant everything that he said, in an effort to fool her, and she had fallen for each and every single word.

Maxie had a few classes that she needed to attend, but she knew that she wouldn't be able to do it. She wouldn't be able to concentrate. It was college, she was no longer mandated to attend, but it wasn't that simple. She was still living at home, and if she did stay home Mac would find a way to find out what was wrong, and then she would tell him and he would either be thrilled beyond belief, or go and try to hurt Damian in some way. Neither was really something that she wanted to deal with, although the second option did seem like something that would have been fun. Despite the pain that he had caused her, she didn't want to make him feel the same way. That was something the old Maxie would have done, and, when they were good together they were really good.

"Honey?" Mac gave a gentle knock on the door. "I know how much you love to sleep in, and since I'm not needed in the office for a little while I thought I would make sure that you got up for school. Maxie…"

Maxie quickly stood up and swept the pieces of the pictures into the nearby trash bin with her hand, hoping that each and every one of them was hidden enough from her father so that he wouldn't be suspicious. "I'm up, dad, don't worry."

"Can I come in to make sure?"

"Yeah, if you want."

Mac didn't waste any time walking into the room. He immediately saw her by the vanity, "Well, it looks like you really are up." Something seemed out of place, though. Something about her appearance. It took him a few seconds, as he wasn't exactly the most observant father on the planet, but when he saw what was missing he did comment on it, "Where's your bracelet at?"

Maxie felt her hand move over to the spot where it used to be the moment that he had mentioned it. She felt like crumbling and telling him everything, but she decided against it. She needed to figure things out for herself, didn't need or want daddy coming and giving any sort of advice that would cure all her woes. "I'm cleaning it right now, it fell into the soil of one of the plants downstairs while I was watering them the other day, and it got really dirty…"

"You look so beautiful with it on. I can't say much about your boyfriend that is good, Maxie, but he really did pick out a nice Christmas present for you… made me feel like I wasn't giving you enough."

Maxie walked over to Mac and hugged him tightly, "You gave me everything that I would ever need, dad. Trust me, no matter what Damian could have given me it would have never even equaled all that you have given to me throughout the years. He never gave me stability…"

"Really?"

"Not like you, at least," she didn't want to lie to herself about their relationship. It might have been painful to admit that they were meant for each other at one time, but pushing those memories away? That seemed even worse on some level.

"Well, at least you're taking care of it. What do you have to do at school today?"

"You know… a few classes. It's early in the semester now, and since it isn't high school anymore I always take new classes. I'm still doing my general education." She was thinking about trying to transfer in to PCU instead of the community college, but decided against it now. Why would she want to go somewhere that her ex-boyfriend went? Maybe she would look into finally leaving Port Charles. She didn't really have much reason to stay.

"Well, just so you know I won't be in for the rest of the day. Even though I have a late start, I also have to leave the office pretty late, so you and your sister are going to be on your own for the night. If you have any problems, you know that you can reach me whenever…"

"Yeah, on your cell."

"Maxie, I don't want you bringing him in to this house, do you understand me?"

"Relax, daddy, the last thing you need to worry about right now is something like that happening." She never wanted him to set foot inside of her house ever again.


	41. Someone To Hold

Samsonlove- Ric's probably my favorite adult character on the show, and I truly believe that Rick Hearst is the most talented person on the show. I adore him so much, and am in awe of his abilities. If he and Robin Christopher had scenes together, I would just die. The thing that is great about Ric is that he has so many dimensions. Even when he was supposed to be hated, I still loved a part of him, because it was impossible to truly hate him. Jason and Dillon will have more interaction throughout the story, that's just a nice little preview as to what's going on between them. Back when Jesse premiered, some of the fans (IE: me) came up with the tag of 'Messie' for Jesse and Maxie, it caught on with some people, it did. I do enjoy Jesse, but he's not in the story, so he doesn't exist. Carly is capable of anything, absolutely anything. The secret that the two of them have together might come out, but, as of right now, the plans are to just let it linger over Carly and Damian's head.

Story-

Quartermaine Mansion, Interior-

Brook couldn't really sleep. It was nearly impossible for her to get much sleep when she was worried about her own mother in the hospital room. It didn't matter how good General Hospital was, when her mother was in danger, and she was, Brook couldn't help but think that the worst was going to happen. So far there was nothing that had come, no news that told her that she would need to buy a black dress and mourn the only parent she ever had who had actually been there for her. Before Damian had even come to her side, Brook had made a promise to herself and to God that, if he spared Lois, Brook would be better. Brook would do everything that she could to embrace her mother, even for all her flaws, all the little things that Lois did that drove her crazy. Brook would love those just as much as she loved everything else about her mother.

The young girl was still in her bed at the mansion, which almost always felt empty, but, without Lois there to help give her something it felt even emptier. She wanted to have someone there that she could confide in, but she didn't have anyone. She wanted to call her mother, but she didn't want to risk waking Lois up in case she was asleep. There were so many things that Brook wanted to do, but she kept herself from doing each and every one of them because there was always some sort of consequence that could happen because of her actions. Until the night before, Brook had never really bothered to worry about the consequences, which just went to show herself how much one event had changed her.

Had it been the same way for him? She wondered that question all through the night, for when her thoughts weren't focused on Lois, they were focused on Damian, on the way that he comforted her when she needed someone to be there for him, the way that he told her so much about what he had gone through when he found himself in a similar situation. He had always looked so strong and confident, but she had seen it, and heard it. The way that his voice cracked, just a small crack but still noticeable, and when he would turn his head a wipe his eyes to keep her from seeing that he too was in pain. Brook wanted to tell him that he didn't need to tell her any more, that she was going to be all right, but she knew that it would be a lie, that she didn't know if she was ever going to be all right, and, as long as she could hear his voice she would have something that would keep her distracted, which was what she needed.

It was with great amounts of coaxing that Brook even bothered to leave the hospital. She wanted to stay with Lois, she wanted to be there the whole night, just to be by her mother, but, Lois had shot that idea down. The woman didn't really give a reason, other than the fact that she didn't want her own daughter to see her in such a position of vulnerability. Lois said that it made her feel old. Such a joke would have previously made Brook mad with rage, but, at that moment in time, she laughed and hugged her mother, crying tears of joy because Lois's lame sense of humor had remained intact through it all. Plus, there was the added factor of Brook being able to sleep in a bed at the mansion instead of somewhere in the hospital. The chairs weren't all that comfortable.

So, with great amounts of regret, Brook Lynn Ashton returned to the Quartermaine mansion, the home of her birthright, but it didn't feel like a home, it never had, it never would. Port Charles wasn't home to Brook, no matter how many friends that she had, no matter who she cared about, there wasn't anything that was in Port Charles that made her think of it as a home. She wanted to go back and tour with her mother, she wanted to leave the place… she just didn't want to be around the town anymore. She didn't have a reason. The boy that she cared about had someone else, someone that he would never leave because he loved her that much. The other boys at school were all completely uninteresting and they only liked her because of her looks and quite possibly her money, or rather the money that they thought she had. At least when she was on tour she could have everything that she wanted. The people that Lois toured with were like a family to Brook, they treated her like she was one of their own. A few times they even let her open up for them, singing old cover songs. It was a small act, but it filled her with confidence.

She hadn't even changed from the clothes that she was in from the night before. It didn't matter. Nothing mattered but her mother at that moment. Everything else just seemed to be there. Although the sound of the music was low, it was there. The songs that Lois loved listening to. Brook would sometimes tell Lois that she hated listening to those old songs over and over, but at that moment, she loved them all. She knew each word, and she would hum along or sing along lightly.

"Honey?" Ned walked in to the room, seeing his daughter, her body not under the sheets, her shoes still on her feet, the mascara that she had on her face had been severely smudged from all the tears that she had shed through the night. She had wiped as much of it as she could, but there had to be a point where she just didn't care. Ned heard the songs as well, the same songs that Lois would have him listen to when they were married. Such a short amount of time, and now he wished that he had it back. It hurt Ned a lot, the fact that she didn't see him the night before, but, as much pain as it caused, he had to respect the decision that she made, and he did, despite his regrets.

"Hey…" Brook looked up, her voice lacking any sort of passion, good or bad. She was still completely unaware of the fact that it was her father who had inadvertently caused the accident that had caused her mother to go into the hospital, but it was probably better that way. Brook needed her daddy, and she let him know it. "Daddy… I'm still scared."

Ned gently sat beside her, watching as she scooted to make room for him. It was more symbolic to him than anything else, just watching her as she made room for him on the bed seemed to echo her making room for him in her life. A beautiful sentiment, too bad it had to come at such a price. Still, taking the victory for what it was, Ned wrapped an arm around her shoulder, "I know you are, princess, but, you know what the doctors said, they said that nothing vital was hurt in the accident, that your mother just had a few bumps and bruises on her body."

"So why did they keep her for observation?"

"Because they wanted to make sure, Brook. Believe me, if there was anything wrong with Lois do you think that we wouldn't know? Alan and Monica live in this house. In fact, I'm sure Monica's already gone to go see your mother. She called just a little while back and said that Lois was in good spirits, even though she was still a little weak."

"How come she didn't want to see you?" Brook asked, wondering if there was something that Ned knew that she didn't. They weren't married anymore, but Brook had always known that they would care about each other. Unlike other children whose parents divorced, Brook's parents seemed to have something that vaguely resembled a peaceful relationship, once a person saw passed the whole making Brook stay away from her own father for most his life thing.

"She was probably just too tired to have a bunch of people fawning over her. You know how your mother is, Brook, she hates it when people pay attention to her if it isn't attention that she doesn't want, and I doubt she wanted us to keep on looking at her while she was in that hospital gown."

Brook laughed, "She would hate to be seen in something like that normally, wouldn't she?" It felt good to laugh at something that seemed so trivial, but it was better to laugh about something trivial than cry herself silly because of something more dire.

"I know you probably don't want to think about school right now, and you need to know that I think that is perfectly fine, I won't force you to go while you're busy worrying about your mother, but, honey, I want you to get some rest yourself. I don't want you driving yourself crazy. Why don't you take a shower or something, relax your nerves… I took one. It didn't help that much, but it helped a little, and every little bit helps, right?"

"I guess," she had to admit that he had a point, one that she hadn't thought of. Brook, while still young, had been through many chaotic days in her life, and a shower always seemed to at least ease the pain a little bit. Why didn't she think of that before? Leaning over, she kissed her father on the cheek, "Thanks, daddy. Now, could you go… privacy and all."

"You make it seem like I haven't seen you naked before."

"Dad!"

Ned put his hands up, "Relax, relax, I'm going. I'll drive you to the hospital if you want."

"Sure… in a little while, okay?"

"Of course."

Brook Lynn watched her father leave the room. The moment she was alone, the small smile that she had fought hard to provide for the comfort of both herself and her father faded, and the lethargy returned, but she fought it. She pulled herself up, using all the strength that she could hope to muster and found a way to walk over to the bathroom, which had a robe that she would use by the end. Brook closed the door and started the water, making sure that it was at its hottest before she did anything else. Then, she sighed. Lois loved it when she could take hot showers. She used to say how, when Brook was a little girl, it was one of the only times that Lois had where she didn't have to worry about being a mom, where she could just be herself. Now, Lois couldn't even take showers in the hospital.

Ned felt horrible, even worse than he had felt the night before when his brother berated him for what he had caused. There was no mistake about it, though, Ned blamed himself for what had happened to Lois, and while he was fortunate enough to not have to worry about killing the mother of his child, he still had to carry the guilt of causing her to become so upset that she almost killed herself. And guilt never rested easily on the soul of Ned. He was one of the few Quartermaine's who even allowed himself to feel guilt. Despite being named after his grandfather, there was very little of Edward in Ned, aside from the business savvy, or so he tried to tell himself. Then, he realized that there was more and more of the old man creeping inside of Ned as he got older. Now, it had gotten to the point where he pushed aside his own family for the gain of the business.

It wasn't just the guilt that he had to shoulder coming from Lois and Dillon, though. Brook didn't know yet, there was no way that she could have known because if she did know she would have been a lot colder towards Ned than she was. But, she would eventually find out about Ned's part in the overall scheme of things, and when she did find out what would happen? Would Brook push him away? Would he lose the little girl that he had yearned for, the daughter that had been taken from him so long before, only to be back for a short period of time?

"Don't look like that, darling, if you frown your face will show it when you get older."

"All I would need to do is look at you before you get one of your monthly injections of botox in order to understand that theory, mother."

"You're overly catty for such an early time in the morning. What happened, did you call one of the people in Japan and they shot you down again? I tell you, the way that you speak with those people is the only way that you're going to impress them, make one mistake and you're blacklisted for the rest of your life."

Ned turned a cold glare at his mother, "Do you even know what happened last night, mother?"

"Of course I know what happened last night, Ned. Your ex-wife was in a car accident and she's currently resting in the hospital, where I'm sure that she's giving people a migraine with that monotonous high pitched voice of hers and that too thick for her own good accent. Really, it's almost a joy to be rid of her…"

"Don't ever say that again!" Ned shouted, losing his temper with Tracy happened from time to time, but it was rarely with such a huge amount of force. He saw the look on Tracy's face, even she was stunned to see her son showing a rare glimpse of a backbone. He certainly didn't get that from her, she took it out of both her children when they were small. Then again, Dillon had finally managed to forge one of his own, as evident by the fact that he was busy living it up with the mobsters. Maybe Ned had a slower backbone regeneration meter, and it had only now spawned one. "I'm sorry… no, wait, I'm not sorry I yelled at someone as heartless as you."

"You know I'm not heartless…"

"Please, the villains in every animated movie that Disney has ever done marvel at you, you're like the template for them…"

"Don't say that, it makes you sound immature, and not to mention the fact that it isn't true. Look, I know that Lois was in the hospital, and, for what it's worth I'm glad that she's alive and well. I may hate the woman, but I certainly never wanted her dead…"

"No, just out of my life."

"That's different, darling, because I know what's best for you, but nonetheless my point remains. I never wanted Lois hurt or otherwise disposed, just out of the picture. She's fine, Ned, you know that, we all know that. Why bother worrying about something that had happened and that there weren't any horrible consequences?"

"Do you know what it's like, mother?" Ned asked. "Do you know what it is truly like to worry about someone that you care about when they're in the hospital and you don't know what's wrong with them? Have you ever had that moment of true fear when you realize that they might be gone forever?"

"No, Ned, I haven't. But you know what I have felt? I've felt the pain of losing someone that I care about more than life itself. I've had that happen to me twice already, once with Dillon when he decided to leave us because he needed his space, and once when I lost my mother. At least I can know that my son doesn't hate me on some level, that I can still see him as he walks down the street, but what about my mother? Don't you think I know what it's like to lose someone?"

"Maybe… but you've forgotten how to show pity to other people who have felt the same thing." Ned, still upset at the antics of his mother, which never seemed to end, left her alone, to brood in her own unique way. He didn't need to deal with her, he didn't want to deal with her. Ned had enough on his plate, more would just cause it to collapse.


	42. Trouble With Teens

Port Charles High-

Georgie stood by her locker during the break between classes. She hadn't seen either her boyfriend or Brook for the entire day, but that wasn't exactly unexpected. After all, sometimes people ran late. Georgie was never one of them, but Dillon and Brook had their own problems that they needed to work out at any given time, usually involving their families. Funny the way that she thought of them as families. After all, they were related. But Dillon, who may have still had the last name of Quartermaine, had distanced himself from his family just as much as Jason had before him. In fact, if it wasn't for Brook, who Dillon did appreciate and love like a true member of his family, Dillon probably wouldn't have anything to do with his family aside from the times where he felt like he needed to be involved with them. Usually, that came at Damian's insistence that he spend some time with his family.

Sometimes, the closeness between the two of them was scary, and Georgie couldn't help but get a little jealous. She understood why they were friends, and she loved the fact that Dillon had found someone who he could confide in, someone who wasn't a female. Before Damian, Dillon had only had Georgie and Maxie. Other people were too busy distancing themselves from Dillon because of who he was, and because of everything that Kyle and his friends were saying about him. Kyle was just jealous because Dillon was the kind of person that he could never be. A rich boy with a heart, someone who wasn't stuck up and snobbish, like him.

But, it wasn't all fun and games. There were plenty of times that she wanted them to stop being so close, and she wanted Dillon to confide in her the way that he confided in Damian. Most of it came from the way that Damian helped Dillon during the ordeal that he went through when Lila died. Damian was there for Dillon first. Not only because he lived right across the hall, but because Dillon called him first, because Dillon felt that he could help more than she could. Even though Georgie admitted to herself that it was true, because of what Damian had been through in his life, she still would have liked to have been that first person that was called, not a second person, not an afterthought.

Was it a little selfish? Probably, but she didn't care. Georgie may have been the one that people depended on when they needed someone who they wanted to be impartial, but what about when she wanted someone to depend on? Who could she turn to? Why couldn't she find someone that she could confide in the same way that other people could? What made her so special that everyone came to her, but nobody opened their arms to hold her when she was in pain? It probably had something to do with the fact that she never showed her pain. Georgie was always so busy dealing with everyone else and their misery that she barely took the time to recognize the pain that was inside of her own soul. An oversight, one that she wanted to correct, but probably wouldn't be able to because of the way that she was. Georgie couldn't change the person that she was, no matter how hard she tried.

The time continued to pass along without anyone that she wanted to see turning around the corner. Georgie was alone. In more ways than one, she was alone. Sadness swept up inside of her. Leaning against the locker, Georgie pulled out her cell phone and dialed Dillon's number first. Was he not at school? The phone rang a few times, and she even listened to hear if she could hear the sound of his phone going off in the hallway, but there was nothing but the chatter of the other students. Dillon's voice spoke in the phone, but it was his voice mail, nothing else. "Dillon, hi, it's me. I just… I wanted to know where you were. Are you at school? I haven't seen you, and break is almost over. Call me, or text me when you get this message, please. I love you." A similar message was left to Brook, taking out any words that gave the hint of love. But, when the bell rang, Georgie walked to her next class without anyone by her side.

The Docks-

Dillon's phone was on, he heard the phone ring, he looked down at it as soon as he pulled it out of his pocket and he saw that it was Georgie. He wanted to answer it, but he stopped himself from doing it because he didn't really feel like unloading on her. He'd done that too often, and, knowing her, she was probably at school. Georgie only took days off when it was of the utmost importance, she couldn't even fathom taking a chance at risking that perfect GPA that she had.

"I'm sorry, Georgie," he whispered, thinking about her beautiful face. He loved the girl so much, but, at that moment, he didn't want to be a burden on her in any way, shape, or form. Who could blame him? He'd leaned on her so much throughout their relationship. From the time that he met her, before he realized how much he loved her, Georgie was his friend, his companion. That much hadn't changed, but, at that moment… no, he couldn't do it.

"Dillon?" Elizabeth saw the boy on the bottom of the docks. She wasn't very close to him, but she had seen him plenty of times around Kelly's, and she found him to be a good kid, with a great sense of humor and of self. Plus, he was Emily's cousin, and Emily had always spoken highly of him, from the moment he arrived in Port Charles that day when Tracy left him.

Dillon turned his head over his shoulder to see Elizabeth. Not wanting to bother her either, he just smiled, trying to hold back the inner darkness, "Morning, Elizabeth."

"Shouldn't you be at school?" Elizabeth asked as she walked down the steps and stood by him. "I mean, it might have been a while since I traveled the halls of Port Charles High, but I certainly remember having to attend school at around this time. Playing hooky?"

"Something like that…"

"Do Jason and Courtney know?"

"Why would they care?"

"Because you live with them," she said softly. "You're their responsibility now, Dillon. They took you in when your family threw you out, remember? I know you're at that age where you think that you can do whatever you want, but at the same time you should at least respect the people who opened their home to you. I mean, you are Jason's cousin, after all."

"Try telling him that…"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Jason doesn't want me there, Elizabeth," Dillon replied. "He's letting me stay because it's important to Courtney, and, don't get me wrong, I appreciate everything that they do for me, I appreciate the fact that they give me a place that feels more like a home than the mansion ever did. But… sometimes it isn't enough…"

And there, underneath everything that Dillon put up to protect himself from being hurt, like he had probably been hurt when Tracy just threw him at the Quartermaine's doorstep, was the sensitivity that he tried to keep hidden. "Dillon… what's wrong?"

"It's just… sometimes I wonder about Jason. I see how much he cares about Michael and Morgan, and I understand why he cares so much about them, because of Sonny and Carly and how much he thinks about them, and the fact that he was Michael's father for awhile… but, it's like, when I look at Jason, I don't see anything. I see him looking at me as if he's saying, 'oh, that kid's still here…' and I can't help but remember that it was the way that people looked at me when I was staying at the mansion."

"Jason's a complicated person, Dillon. He always has been, he always will be…"

"Do you think anyone really understands him?"

She shook her head, "No, I don't. As close as Courtney and Carly are to him, they probably can't understand most of what he's feeling. A part of that is because, on some level, Jason probably doesn't even know what he's feeling either. Jason was and still is one of the best people I've ever met, Dillon. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to insult him by saying that, but he has a lot of baggage on his shoulders, baggage that he doesn't want people to see. And when they do see it, like I did a few times, he tries to push it away, change the subject."

"That doesn't help me much…"

"I know, but I'm just saying that Jason might not seem like he cares, but that's just the way that he looks all the time, Dillon. Jason is the type of person who is afraid of opening himself up, because of what he does, because of the fact that he knows that it could all be over tomorrow, that he could end up on the floor tomorrow, leaving behind everyone that he loves. Do you know what that's like? No, you can't know what that's like, because you're not that kind of person. Nobody can understand that kind of weight."

"So what do we do?"

"If you're me, you let it push you away so much that you just end up resenting Jason for what he is, and that hurts him more than he ever deserves to be hurt. If you're like Courtney, you find a way to make it work, you find a way to compromise… and, I guess what you're looking for is to feel like you actually belong somewhere. So, why don't you try asking him how he feels about you? If there's one thing that Jason doesn't do, it's lie. No matter what."

"I guess…"

"Look, I'm not going to tell you that it is going to solve all your problems, because it won't, but it will at least give you something. You said that you want to feel like the house is more than the mansion, but the only person who can make that happen is yourself. If you want to be broody and miserable, then I can't stop you, and neither can Jason or anyone else… but, Dillon, nothing ever comes from having that kind of anger in your heart. Believe me, I know."

"Is it really that simple?"

"Things are usually simpler than we want to make them out to be. We like to make something out of nothing as a general rule of thumb. I don't know if that's the only thing that's bugging you right now, Dillon, but I know that if you take one step towards finding a way to deal with that kind of sadness and hurt, it will help make everything else seem a little less tremendous."

Dillon nodded. He thought about every word that she had told him, and he realized that she had a lot of points. It was that simple, and he knew that Jason wouldn't lie to him. The question was, did Dillon want to ask Jason? What would he do if Jason said that he didn't want him around? What would he do if Jason wanted him to leave. Could he find a way to make it work? To be alone again. His mother had said that he was always welcome at the house, but he knew Tracy better than that. The minute he wanted to come back she would find a way to strangle the life out of him again, try and mold him into the way that she wanted him to be. But he wouldn't have that, he couldn't sacrifice himself in that way, not again.

"I know that you're going to do what you think is right. But, you know, if you ever need a friend, I'm usually at Kelly's, and I'll do what I can. If you need references on my abilities as a friend, I'm sure you'll find some in your immediate circle of family and friends. Just don't ask Carly…"

"I know better than to ask Carly about anything, Elizabeth. Thanks, though. This really helped me out."

"Not a problem. I'll see you later, Dillon. Bye." Elizabeth gently touched his shoulder before she walked back up the stairs and towards Kelly's, giving one last glance at the boy, who continued to look out at the sea. Hopefully things would work out that way. If not, she would find a way to help him.

Outside Port Charles Community College-

Just in case someone was watching her, because she never put much passed her father, Maxie made her way to the Community College, but she had no intention of ever going inside, at least not at that day. She wasn't going to sacrifice her college career because of one person, even someone that she loved as much as Damian. She wasn't that girl anymore.

"Hey, Maxie…"

Maxie turned around to see a familiar face, although not exactly one of the most welcome faces that she could have seen. Not wanting to be rude, she smiled anyways, "Hi, Robbie. How are you?"

The boy, Robbie, hadn't changed much since high school, as evident by his attire and the way that he spoke. Maxie once hung around him from time to time, mostly because he was one of the people who was in Kyle's group. She had seen him at the community college, but kept her distance. "I'm cool. I mean, school sucks. My parents said that if I didn't get a job or go to school they would kick me out, though, and I'm too young to be wasting my time behind a counter asking people if they want fries with that, you know?"

Maxie felt that she had lost a few points of her IQ when she heard him talk, but, she saw something in Robbie that she hadn't seen before, a chance to feel something other than the misery that she was feeling before. "Yeah, Robbie, I understand completely."

"So… you going to school?"

"Not today, I just needed to stop by for a few seconds. How about you?"

"I've got a quiz that I need to take. I wish I could miss it, but I've already missed three classes." It was only the second week of class. His parents never said that he needed to have a good attendance record. "And I should get myself over there before I'm late. The teacher won't let you take the quiz if you're late. See you later, Maxie."

"Wait, Robbie, can I ask you something?"

"I guess…"

"You want to grab a bite to eat later or something? You know, a date?"

"Yeah, that would be great!"

"Good, I'm glad. Meet me here at around seven, okay?" Maxie smiled and walked away, the smile faded as soon as she turned around, though. A part of her hated what she was doing, but, she just wanted to get over it, someway.


	43. Two People, Two Perspectives

Samsonlove- Maxie, as it is often stated both in the story and in the show, often lashes out and does the most idiotic things that she can think of. Sometimes it involves having sex with random people, like she's done before, and sometimes it involves doing something self destructive. Other times, like evident by her actions, it involves doing something that she knows is wrong but she just can't help it. Thus is the curse of Maxie Jones.

Port Charles Police Department-

There was the normal hustle and bustle of calls that were coming in throughout the day. Small things. Petty theft, maybe an assault. As hard as it was for most of the members of the Port Charles Police staff to admit, they were rather happy about what was going on. True, they would be happier if nothing had happened at all, but that was an unrealistic dream, they each understood that. But, based on the things that could happen around Port Charles: murders, explosions, shootouts… the list went on and on, the problems that they were dealing with at that particular moment seemed to be little more than a cakewalk.

Each and every time something big happened, the PCPD did try their hardest to find some way of solving the problem before it got too big, but it never worked. They were never able to do what they wanted to do. They were never able to keep their streets clean of the sick people who ran around Port Charles. Each time they felt that they had something that they could use against people, like Sonny Corinthos and Jason Morgan, something ended up happening that would completely destroy any chances that they had at making the charges stick. Time and time again the same fate had befallen them. Mac may have been their commissioner, and he was a damned good one at that, but even he couldn't hope to keep the quickly diminishing spirits of his squad up in the face of each and every defeat that, by all accounts, should have been theirs.

In an office inside the Port Charles Police Department, Ric Lansing worked diligently at trying to devise a way to do what he had said he was going to do: help his brother out. The urge to betray Sonny was there, it really was, and it only got stronger the more he thought about it, and then he remembered that throughout it all the only thing that Ric truly wanted was some sort of respect from Sonny. Some sort of acknowledgement that they were family, aside from the obvious times where they had to admit it to each other. Ric and Sonny may have been brothers, but they certainly didn't feel like brothers, and Ric wanted that, he wanted to feel like he could depend on his big brother for things. Before, when he was younger, it was the simple things: teaching him how to throw a nice curve ball, beating up a bully at school who was giving him a hard time, teaching him about girls. Those were all things Ric no longer needed Sonny to do for him, but what Ric now needed Sonny to do was admit that he cared, admit that he wanted Ric in his life. The whole time that Ric wanted to demolish Sonny and his life it was all because of the fact that Ric had been denied something that he had been trying to get his entire life: respect from his mother's side of the family. With Adella gone, the only other person who could give it to him was Sonny.

It was with that in mind, that yearning for something more than what he had, that Ric understood that he couldn't go back to his old tactics, because they didn't work. The reason why Sonny hated him so much was because of everything that he did, all the lying, all the pain that he caused Sonny and his family, especially his family. Ric's family as well, and now that he further realized that they were in fact his family, he just felt worse and worse about all the torment that he put them through. He remembered the first time he saw Carly hold Morgan in her arms. She didn't know that he was there, and it was better that way because she probably would have said or done something that would have crushed him, but he remembered thinking how right it felt, and how much pain he could have brought upon all of them for taking the baby away. Yes, in the end the plan wouldn't have worked, but for those moments, it would have been disastrous.

What was he thinking back then? Why was he that kind of person? Didn't he realize that it wouldn't have mattered in the end? That Elizabeth would have known that something was wrong, that she wouldn't have accepted the baby, and it probably would have pushed her so far away that he wouldn't even have what he had now? That second chance at happiness? Ric was determined now to not ruin what he had been blessed with, in any way, shape, or form. And it wasn't just Elizabeth that he was thinking about. Far from it. He had a chance to bring his importance to his big brother up. Ric had a chance to do something for Sonny that nobody else could do, not even the fabled Jason Morgan, and he was determined not to screw it up, no matter how hard it was on him.

Lucky knocked on the door. Each time he looked at the sign that said 'Ric Lansing, District Attorney,' he felt a small chill run down his spine. After everything that Ric had done to Carly and Sonny, Lucky's family, he certainly couldn't just forgive the man for his actions. And, to make matters worse, Ric was now once again married to Elizabeth, Lucky's first love, and one of his dearest friends. Lucky had seen the change, seen the way that Ric had softened around the all too jagged edges that once made up his being, but, for Lucky at least, it wasn't enough, because he thought that, at any second, things could go back to the way that they were and that he would be back to the person that he was, destroying lives in the process. Elizabeth had sacrificed so much of herself the first time, and it took her a long time to build herself back up. To have it happen again… Lucky wasn't certain that she would be able to survive it a second time.

"Come in," Ric shouted from the other side of the door, his eyes focused on the papers in front of him. There really wasn't anything that he could do about Durant at that point in time. He hadn't overstepped his boundaries as they were written, yet. And there was no law that prohibited someone from coming to a town just for a visit, even if that visit wasn't really a visit and more of a vendetta. There was also no rule against Durant hanging around the PCPD as often as he was, because it was a public building. Ric may have been a lawyer, and he may have understood why things were the way that they were, why the laws were up, but sometimes the laws just weren't very easy to accept.

Lucky walked into the office and shut the door softly. He lingered for a moment, watching as Ric seemed so entirely focused on one thing and one thing only: the papers that he was reading. Was there some case that Lucky wasn't aware of? Sometimes he felt that people tended to keep him out of the loop because of his connections to Sonny and Carly. It was entirely unfounded. Lucky was an officer of the law, and people just needed to respect that. It wasn't his fault that he had familial connections to the mob boss, he didn't ask for them. Besides, Ric was his brother, and he was involved in something? "What are you looking at?"

Ric turned his brown eyes up and placed the papers down on the desk, "I'm just trying to see what I can do in order to rid ourselves of the pest problem that we've managed to acquire over the past few days…"

"You're speaking about Durant, aren't you?"

"Is it that obvious?"

"Only to someone like me," Lucky replied, smiling softly. At least they could be united in their hatred of Durant. It was nice to know that they weren't completely at odds, because sometimes it felt like they were. "Your brother must be shaking in his boots."

"Sonny doesn't wear boots…"

"You went to Yale, and they didn't teach you figures of speech?"

Ric shook his head, "No, I was just trying to lighten the mood. I've been so focused on trying to find a way to get him out of Port Charles that I haven't had enough time to do anything else, aside from spend time with my wife."

"How's she handling all of this anyway?"

"What do you mean?"

Since the door was closed, Lucky felt that he could speak with Ric privately, even so, he kept his voice as quiet as possible, to avoid anyone from listening in if they were just by the door. "The other day, Elizabeth asked me if I could watch over Durant. She seems to think that he's going to take apart every single person that he can get his hands on in order to destroy Sonny's life."

"Why would she care…" Ric asked, wondering why Elizabeth hadn't spoken to him about the same thing, why she had gone to Lucky. But they were good friends, and in some ways, Lucky understood Elizabeth more than he could ever hope to understand her. And then it hit him, the common connection, "Damian?"

He nodded softly, "Elizabeth doesn't think that Durant will just stop with Sonny, or that he won't try and bring down everyone associated with him…"

"Neither would I. He's already made threats against my office. He wants to take over here, Lucky. He wants to take the job that I worked hard for, the job that I want to keep."

"Sonny's certainly gotten us into a mess again, hasn't he?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You know what it means, Ric. If Sonny wasn't who he is, then we wouldn't even have to worry about being a blip on the radar in John Durant's eyes. Do you think he even thinks about small places like Port Charles if he doesn't have something worth bringing his attention our way? This is Sonny's fault…"

"Sonny didn't bring this on us because he wanted to, Lucky. Say what you will about my brother, but, when it isn't necessary, he doesn't like to be flashy about himself and the things that he does." They couldn't speak of the things that he did because they didn't 'know.' They did know, of course, but nothing had been proven. Just another way that the law tended to favor people who could get away with their crimes. Not exactly something worth looking forward to.

"So we're being forced to defend him again?"

"Everyone is entitled to being able to live their life without fear of being prosecuted, Lucky, even my brother. Besides, you said it yourself, if we don't do something about Durant right now, he's just going to find some way to destroy everyone who gets in his way, and that includes the two of us. I don't want to sound insulting, but I can find a way to make a living, I can still practice law, what about you? You worked so hard for this position, if he took it away from you with just a snap of his fingers…"

"He wouldn't…"

"You're Carly's cousin, Lucky, that makes you connected to Sonny in some roundabout way. If he's going after my nephew, for no apparent reason…"

"What if there is a reason?"

"I refuse to believe that Damian's involved with Sonny in more ways than just being his child. You know him, Lucky… you've seen him with his friends…"

"I've also seen Sonny with his friends and with his family, well, everyone except for you…"

"Thanks for pointing that out."

"What I'm trying to say is that people can hide who they really are from the people around them and bring it out at the worst possible time. You, of all people, should know about that, Ric. After all, Elizabeth didn't…"

"Elizabeth didn't what?"

Lucky got up out of his seat, "Elizabeth didn't think that you would do what you did to her and to the people that you hurt before when she met you. She thought that she could help you deal with your anger, and she couldn't."

"I lost my child, Lucky… I wasn't thinking correctly. Are you trying to tell me that you still think that I'm capable of doing the things that I did before? Because, I can assure you that I'm not that person anymore, I've learned my lesson, I've seen what it cost me, and I have no desire to make that same mistake twice."

"Ric, I don't want to think that he's a bad person, honestly, I don't. I want to believe that he's as good a person as we all think he is, but, if he isn't, if he does something… we'll have to do what we have to do."

"I understand. In the meantime, we should keep our focus on Durant…"

"I agree."

"Good. You can see yourself out, I'm sure…"

"Yeah, I can," Lucky walked out of the room and shut the door behind him, leaning against the wall. Why did Elizabeth marry him again? Why did she want to take that chance a second time? He wanted to trust Elizabeth's judgment, truly, he did, but it was hard when she did things that he saw as huge mistakes. Lucky wanted her to be happy, but could she really be happy with Ric? He wasn't so sure. Lucky had promised that he would watch over Damian and make sure that Durant didn't bring him down for just being who he was, but he was now going to watch Ric as well, and make sure that Ric didn't do anything that could bring Elizabeth down as well.

Inside the office, Ric stared at the faded glass window. He could see the faint outline of Lucky from it, and he felt Lucky's penetrating stare, even if he couldn't tell if Lucky was truly looking at him. Was this what Durant was supposed to do? Break them apart? They had a barely cohesive relationship, and now it was ripping apart at the seems. "I don't know where you are, Durant, but wherever you are, damn you for what you're doing to us…"

Elsewhere-

The empty room was all that a person would see if they walked in, well, that and a partially opened window, the cold wind blowing through the room of the hotel. There was another item that was impacted by the blowing wind, a photograph album, many black and white pictures that had been taken throughout the ages rested on the table. The cold wind was brought up once more, flipping the picture to a familiar sight, but not in the way that a person would expect. A familiar face to all who had been in Port Charles for even a short time.

One of the hotel staff knocked on the door, "Mr. Durant? Your food is ready… Mr. Durant?" There was no answer from behind the door, for Durant had left, a more pressing matter had come up.


	44. Tread Lightly

General Hospital-

"Are you sure you should be up?" Sonny asked as he opened the door to see his best friend staring out the window by standing a little too close for comfort.

"I couldn't just stay in that bed forever, could I?" Lois asked, giving a small smile to Sonny. "I'd been in it for hours, I felt like I was going to go insane unless I got up and did something."

"You're not thinking about jumping, are you?"

"What kind of question is that?" Lois wondered. "I'm not suicidal, Sonny, and even if you were joking about it, I don't appreciate the implication."

"What did you want me to think, Lois?" Sonny asked, walking to her side, "You got into a car accident last night because of what happened. It's obvious that Ned crushed you with what he said at that place, and I can still see it in your eyes. You can't hide these things from me. I know you too well."

Lois felt the tears well up in her eyes once more. She hated it when she cried, but she couldn't help it, Ned truly had crushed her with his words. Not only because he said them, but, because, at least on some level, Lois believed that they could have been true. All those hurtful things that he said could have had some base of truth in them, and that knowledge did not sit well with her. "You always do this for me, you know that?" She said, laughing, trying to get her mind off of the pain. She hoped it would work, although she was willing to bet that it wouldn't.

"Do what for you?"

"Come to my rescue when I need someone to be there for me," Lois grabbed his hand softly. "You've done it for me since we were kids, always there to defend me when I needed help, always watching over me when I thought I was going to get myself in too deep. My entire childhood I knew I could depend on one person, and that person always was you, Sonny. I owe you so much for what you did for me back then, what you continue to do for me now."

Sonny was touched by her words, but they seemed empty to him. Not because of what Lois said, but because of what he felt about what she was saying, his own opinion of himself wasn't nearly as high as hers. "You're wrong."

The look of happy nostalgia was slapped off of her face a moment later, "Wrong? How am I wrong?"

"You don't owe me a thing, Lois," Sonny said calmly. "You know why I spent so much time at your house, with your family. You saw the way that he treated me and my mother. I needed to get out of that place as much as possible, because if I didn't he would have ended up killing my spirit more than he already did. Everything I did for you, all the times I watched over you like you were the most important person to me was because I felt like I needed to do something that would end up making up for all the burdens that I had placed on you and your family. My childhood was horrible, for the most part, but whenever I think about times when it wasn't so bad, when I was truly happy, you're always in those memories."

Lois reached over and hugged him. He took so much onto himself, so much responsibility, as if he didn't want anyone to share any of the burden that had followed him around like a dark cloud, and she loved him for it. Lois loved Sonny Corinthos, in her own special way. "You know," she said between laughs and happy tears, "when we were little, my ma would always say that she thought we would be together forever. I swear, she would be planning our wedding while we were playing stickball outside."

"She wouldn't have been a bad mother-in-law. She was, in a lot of ways, like a second mother to me as it was."

Lois pulled away, the laughter continuing, "You know, that one that you have now isn't so bad in the mother-in-law department either. Compared to who I got the first time I got married…" and there it was, Tracy's specter, her presence ruining the happiness that Lois had finally gotten after so many hours of painful introspection.

"She's all right, I guess." Compared to Tracy, Bobbie was a dream come true, but they still had a lot of issues between the two of them. No matter how good a father Sonny was to Bobbie's grandchildren, no matter how good a husband he was to her daughter, Sonny was still a dangerous person. Bobbie was one of the few people who rarely, if ever, saw passed that. And, in some ways, Sonny was thankful for it. "Your mom must have been really disappointed when I left the old neighborhood… seems like I crushed her dreams of a big catholic wedding in a church with hundreds of guests in a ceremony that would take hours." Sonny hated the long, drawn out ceremonies as practiced by his religion. He wanted to keep them short, and not just because the shorter the time spent getting married the longer they could spend alone.

"I don't think she was upset about that so much as she was upset about the fact that you left in the first place," Lois walked over to the bed, sitting on the edge. "She said how much she regretted not being able to try and convince you that what you were doing was only going to get you in trouble. She told me how much she wished that you would have stayed and finished high school. She even said that if you needed to move in with us so that you could get away from him, she'd let you, because she loved you that much."

"Your mother's a great woman…"

"So was yours, Sonny. So was yours."

"Yeah, she was." God help him, he missed her so much. Sonny never wanted anyone to feel the kind of pain that he felt when it came to his mother, and the way that he lost her. There were limits to even Sonny's power, however, and fighting off death was one of those limits. Already, one of his children had been forced to deal with such consequences of life, and it had to be the single defining moment in that child's life.

"So, why'd you stop by?" Lois asked, once more changing the subject. "Not that I'm trying to say I don't love you for visiting me, but was there a reason, or did you just decide that you wanted to see how I was doing?"

"Do I need an ulterior motive?"

"Do you need one? No. Do you have one? That's another question entirely, one that I can't answer."

Sonny snickered, "You do know me too well, don't you?" Unable to conceal his true motives for coming to the hospital, Sonny spoke once more, "I called to see if you had been checked out yet. Just so you know, when you're ready, I've got a driver prepared to take you over to the Port Charles Hotel. You can stay as long as you want, I'm paying for it. And, if you want to get a room for Brook, all you need to do is ask."

"Sonny… I can't accept that."

"Lois, I've protected you ever since we were kids. That's not exactly something that I can just drop at a moment's notice. I'm not taking no for an answer. Unless you can honestly tell me that you want to go back into the Quartermaine mansion and see all those people again. Tracy, Ned, Edward…"

"Alan and Monica aren't so bad."

"Depends on who you ask."

Lois frowned. She knew that there was a lot of bad blood between Alan, Monica and Sonny. Such things were expected when two people thought that the other one stole their grandson and converted him into a mobster-to-be. Luckily, they had managed to keep most of their animosity towards one another away from Michael, who probably wouldn't understand. The frown wasn't just because of Alan and Monica, though. It was because she knew, on some base level, that Sonny was right. She wouldn't want to go back to that place. She couldn't, not yet, maybe not ever. She had always held out hope that Ned had accepted her for who she was, and, apparently, that wasn't true. The worst part was that, through it all, she couldn't help but continue to feel for him. "All right," she said softly.

"Thank you. You'll love the room, Lois. I had them get the best room available, nothing less for my best friend."

"What about all my stuff?"

"If you need someone to go and get your things for you, I can arrange that. If you want to just leave it there and pick up some new stuff, I can arrange for that, too."

"You know, you're treating me like I'm your mistress or something, Sonny. How do you think Carly is going to react when she realizes what you're doing for me?"

Sonny grinned, "Carly's going to hate it, but what can she do? She knows how much you mean to me. Last night, I couldn't believe it, but she was there for me in ways that I thought she would never be able to be there for me, because of how much the two of you don't get along."

"You're not thinking that we're going to find some sort of common ground and be able to make peace, are you?"

"I'm not an idiot, Lois, I know that some things won't ever happen."

There was a light knock on the door as Brook poked her head inside. "Ma?" She was only expecting to see one person, but when she saw Sonny she was surprised, "Oh, hi, Sonny."

"Hello, Brook."

"Dad's outside, Ma," Brook said as she walked into the room from the doorway. "Do you want him to come in?"

"Not right now, Brookie," Lois replied. "I just want to see how you're doing first, okay?"

"All right…"

Sonny watched as mother and daughter embraced. Brook had been through so much, as had Lois, at least they had each other. In a lot of ways, Sonny wished that he had a daughter, just one. That didn't mean that he loved his sons any less, but, just to experience the same thing that other people had. To be able to treat someone like his little princess, that was something that Sonny wished he could have. "Lois, if you need me, you know how to get in touch with me. I'll see you soon, all right?"

Sonny quickly walked out of the room and looked for Ned. He was standing right around the corner, back to the wall, keeping his distance, waiting for the okay to come in. "Lois is spending some time with Brook right now, said she wanted to do it in private."

"What were you doing in there?"

"All that education that you got doesn't let you retain simple information, does it, Ned?" Sonny asked, completely devoid of sarcasm. As much as Lois and Carly hated one another, Ned and Sonny had that same kind of relationship. It was pretty difficult at times, but they managed to coexist, although not very peacefully. "Lois is my best friend, I'm always going to be there for her."

"Until you're put away in jail for everything that you do, or carried away in some body bag…"

"You can't even be grateful that the mother of your daughter is all right, that she's going to be around for awhile longer…"

"How much longer, Sonny? I can never tell, since the people around you tend to disappear so quickly that we barely register them on the radar before they're gone."

Sonny shook his head, "It must really burn you up to know that she wanted to spend time with me when she needed someone, and she can't even stand to think about you."

"Don't pretend to know how I think."

"I don't need to pretend to know how you think, Ned. I know how you think. Money, money, money. That's it, that's all you ever think about. That's why your marriage to Lois failed, that's why she took your daughter away from you, because you could never be expected to make the time of day for her when it mattered."

Ned looked down at Sonny, both in reality and in the metaphysical sense. Oh, how he wished to knock that smug little grin right off of his mouth, but he couldn't, because Sonny had more power than Ned would ever hope to have, and Ned had no desire to end up pushing up daises. "You've said your piece, why don't you leave now?"

"Because I'm not done yet, Ned, that's why. I've gotten Lois a room at the Port Charles Hotel, because she needs to be in an environment that doesn't poison her, like the Quartermaine Mansion. Now, I'm fully aware of the fact that you people own the hotel, but as long as she isn't surrounded by your influence I think she'll be fine. If Lois goes to the mansion to get her things, or, if she sends someone to get them for her, I don't want to hear about anyone telling her that she can't have them. Do you understand me?"

"Is that a threat?"

"Of course not," Sonny was not in the mood for threatening, he was just stating a fact. The things belonged to Lois, she wasn't a prisoner inside the walls of the Quartermaine mansion, although it could have been hard to tell. "I'm just letting you know that she won't be staying there anymore, and, if she wants to take your daughter with her, let her."

"Brook is going to stay with me. I'm not going to lose her again."

"You'll have her as long as she doesn't know that you were the one who caused her mother to get into that accident, that much is for sure. But, who can say how much longer you'll have her after that?" Sonny didn't know the answer, although he had a good feeling that it wouldn't be for much longer. "Lois doesn't want your daughter to hate you, and I'm respecting her wishes, but you're on thin ice. Don't fall in."


	45. Decipher

Samsonlove- I think the thing that makes the fans love Maxie, or at least the Robyn Richards version of Maxie (the true version, in my eyes) is the fact that she was instrumental to the Barbara Jean Heart Transplant storyline which many consider the pinnacle of emotional storylines in the history of General Hospital. Yes, Adella, to my knowledge, has never been seen before or mentioned more than anything in passing, but she is very important to the histories of both Sonny and Ric, so I believe that she should be, at least in spirit, considered as a character that has a little more weight than the people who write the show now seem to give her. One thing about the show is that it doesn't respect its own continuity, and that is highly disappointing.

Port Charles-

"What did Leticia say?" Courtney asked as she and Carly sat at a table at one of the restaurants, their day not even close to being done. There was something to be said about being the wives of Jason and Sonny respectively, they never had to worry about needing to be on a reservations list, especially in Port Charles. And, while they both may have been from the lesser roots as opposed to some of the other people that were around the area, Carly and Courtney fit in, which just went to show that even people who had once been of the 'low' class did not need to be afraid of what could happen to them, that they didn't need to feel like they always had to stay at that low class, because they could eventually get above in life, just like Courtney and Carly. True, some people would make fun of the way that they managed to get the notoriety that they now had, but would they do such a thing to their faces? That was another question entirely, and it wasn't one that would be given an easy answer. After all, who would want to talk badly about the wives of two of the most powerful men in Port Charles?

"Morgan just got done taking a nap, so he's walking around in his walker around the nursery right now. I heard him laughing as he hammered down on his walker with one of the toy mallets that he loves." Carly smiled, beaming like a proud mother. She may have missed Morgan's first steps, but Leticia told her about them, and, in the moment, Carly felt the same kind of pride that she would feel had she been there, or had she seen tapes of the event. Nobody could tell her that she was a neglectful mother. Yes, she did leave a lot of the mothering to Leticia, but, when push came to shove, Carly was there for her children the moment that they needed her, no questions asked. For some, motherhood was a shackle that they were willing to be burdened with. Carly was not one of those people. Her children would come first, but she didn't feel the need to let herself give up everything that she had simply to fit the typecast that society had given her.

"He looks so cute in that little walker, doesn't he?" Courtney asked, beaming with a pride that was similar in many ways, but could not be the same. After all, there could be only one true mother to Morgan, and Carly would always be that person. Courtney was fine with that. After all, Carly was the one who pushed Morgan out of her body, the one who went through all the pain that she went through to make sure that he had a chance at living.

"Yeah, he does." The two best friends shared a moment together, and then it changed. Carly noticed it, in those bright beautiful eyes of Courtney as she let out the faintest glimmer of grief and regret, hidden behind the happiness that was there. Not a fake happiness in the least, but not entirely true. Carly knew what it was that had caused the darkness that had crept forward: Courtney was reminded of her own child, the one that she had lost. The one that would have been raised alongside Morgan. Cousins that would be as close as blood siblings, because of the connection that their parents had with one another. Morgan would protect the child, the same way that they protected each other. All those dreams were gone, and they didn't even know how much they wanted those dreams to come true until the chances were taken from them.

"Don't look now… but we've got a visitor…"

Carly couldn't help but look behind her shoulder to see the man that she didn't want to see. John Durant was standing there, staring at the two of them, staring at Carly in particular. "Do you think we should go?"

Courtney shook her head, "Why should we leave, Carly? We have every right to be here, this is our town, John Durant belongs in New York, Port Charles is our home, we have nothing to hide."

"You're right… but I don't want to be here with him."

"If you want to leave, we'll leave, but I'm telling you right now that I do not want to leave because I don't want him to know that he is having that kind of impact on us. If we show him that we're even a little frightened, he's going to think that he has the two of us where he wants us, and I won't give him that satisfaction without knowing for sure that you don't want to be here."

Carly thought about it. Something about the way that Durant was looking at her made her skin crawl, but her best friend had a point: if she let herself be afraid of him, then that was it, it meant that he would win, and if there was one thing that she didn't want it was to give him the satisfaction of knowing that he had gotten to them. He would enjoy that far too much. She didn't want Durant to enjoy himself, because he wasn't letting them enjoy themselves. "You know what? To hell with him, we came here because we wanted to get something to eat… and we're not going to let him make us feel like we're bad people when we're not."

"That's a good way of thinking about it." Courtney smiled once more as she got up from her chair, passing a dirty look over to Durant before she looked down at Carly, "I need to use the restroom really quick, though. Are you going to be all right?"

"Courtney, I realize that you're the more capable of the two of us when it comes to defending yourself, but I'm far from helpless. I know where to aim, just in case people get a little too rough. And, trust me, if Durant got in my way, if he enticed me, I would not bat an eyelash at hitting him where it counted."

"That's the trailer park in you, girl."

"And don't you forget it."

"You're sure?"

"Yes, Courtney, I'm sure. Go, go use the restroom before you burst, because then I would lose my appetite."

"No you wouldn't."

Carly scoffed as Courtney walked away. That was what she loved about having a friend like Courtney, just someone that she could gab with and not worry about offending. Girls were infamous for having such problems, and she was glad that she had found someone who wasn't like that.

Durant looked over at Carly, transfixed with the knowledge that he had learned. Could it be true? Could she really be his daughter? She looked so much like his great-aunt, the resemblance was almost impossible to ignore. He would have thought about it before, but, unfortunately, he had never really paid much attention to Carly Corinthos, as she was never in the papers as much as her husband. If Carly was the type of person that her husband was, if she was a petty criminal like Sonny, then John would have seen her picture before, and he would have known.

With Carly's best friend out of the way, John worked up the courage to go and talk to her. His jaw still ached from their prior confrontation, but he would manage. After all, there was a good chance that he was going to talk with the woman that was his daughter. "Do you mind if I take a moment of your time."

"Yes, I do."

"I promise that it won't be about your husband."

"I don't care what the topic is, you bastard, I don't want you around me. You're here for one reason and one reason only, and don't even try and make it seem like you're not here to do anything more than take away my family from me."

"Carly…"

"Don't address me like we matter to each other, Durant. We don't. You mean absolutely nothing to me. Now, I know that I can't do anything about you being here, since this is a public establishment, and while you may tend to try and take away the rights of innocent people the law still stands…"

"Your husband is anything but innocent."

"No jury has ever convicted Sonny."

"Because he scares them."

"The same could be said about you, though," Carly replied, showing no fear. Indeed, it was hard to be afraid of someone that she had so much hate for. Why would she be afraid of someone that she just wanted to tear apart into little tiny pieces? There was no real reason. "You scowl at them, hoping to bend them to your ways. I'm sorry, but you won't do the same thing to me or my family."

"Family is a funny word, isn't it?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

John walked away as soon as he saw Courtney returning from a rather quick retreat into the restroom. So much for how much time women spent inside such a room. "I think you should give it some thought, Carly. I'm sure we'll meet again."

"Not if things go the way that I want them, they won't." Carly glared at Durant as he walked away and out of the eatery. Anger swelled up inside of her and she grabbed the glass that had been filled with water, taking a drink and hoping that it would cool down the fire that was burning inside of her. It didn't.

"What was that all about?"

"I don't know, he was trying to psyche me out. It won't ever work, though. I know what he wants to try and do, but I won't let him get inside my head like that."

Outside, Durant turned around the corner and leaned his head against the lamppost as people walked by. It was true, wasn't it? No matter how much he tried to deny it, there really was no way of getting around it. The only person who could tell him one way or the other was Bobbie, and he would find a way to make sure that she talked to him. He would find a way to be certain, one way or the other, if Carly Corinthos was truly his daughter.

Port Charles-

Jason banged on the van that was discretely parked around the corner. It was one of their many little tricks that they used. A delivery truck that was parked by the business in question, the owner being paid a lucrative sum to let Sonny and Jason operate around that area. There were many such vans inside of Port Charles, all located around various hotspots, used whenever they were needed. With the particular problem that they were going through at that moment, the van that was closest to the PC Hotel was the most logical choice.

Stan opened the back of the van as quietly as possible, watching as Jason quickly hopped inside. Stan was one of Sonny's more trusted operatives, and one of the most useful as well. Unlike the hired help that Sonny employed, Stan wasn't the type of person who would go through the rigors of violence. Far from it, Stan was something of a pansy when it came to violence. Brave enough to stand up for himself when it was necessary, not foolish enough to actually put himself into the fray. But, while his methods may have differed from Sonny and Jason's, they still had a common bond, and it wasn't just because Jason and Sonny paid him. He believed in what they did. Maybe not their motives, maybe not their operation, but the fact was that, as far as mobsters went, Jason and Sonny were actually some of the better ones. He was glad to be working with them. Even when he failed, he didn't need to worry about his life being in danger.

"What have you found?" Jason asked, his voice sterner than usual, which was something to take note of, because Jason had a naturally soft voice, even if it belied the job that he did and the cold aloofness that he had made his signature through the years.

"Nothing, really."

"Stan, I don't want an answer like that. Give me whatever it is that you have. I have you looking for any information on John Durant that we can use against him, either in his past, or while he's here."

"I'm tell you, Jason, Durant has combed his record so clean that it seems like it came out of a Disney movie complete with dancing animals and birds flipping the pages with their beaks. On paper, he looks like a Saint."

"Nobody is that perfect."

"Yes, I know that, but you want me looking for something that I can't find. You know that I'm one of the best there is at this particular job, but there are limits to what I can do."

"Then find a way to make those limits go away… until then, tell me what you've gotten from the bug that you had one of the bellboys plant I his room."

"Again, a whole lot of nothing. He seemed to be looking at something, though."

"Something?"

"Yeah, take a listen to this," Stan pressed play on the tape that had been recorded only a few hours before. Durant was not speaking, but he was making noise, as if he was contemplating something. There was a sound that could be heard as well, faint, but when Stan focused on it, it was obvious that the sound came from someone turning the pages of a book. "Do you hear it?"

"I don't hear anything out of the ordinary. Maybe he was looking at a magazine or something."

"No, the way that the pages turned, the sound that they made, too heavy for a regular magazine. A folder or something… maybe he has some information on Sonny, because, whatever it was, it caused him to rush out of the room before he got any food to eat."

Jason listened to the tape more intently than before. Was Stan right? Was there a folder that he had, a folder that could be used against Sonny and against him, or worse, against the people around them, the innocents who they put in danger every time they were around them?


	46. Bestest

Coffee House-

Damian walked back into the coffee house during his break between classes. One more class and then he would be done for the day. Technically, he could have gone back to the penthouse, but he decided against it, knowing that if he went into his room and relaxed on the bed he probably would lose every urge that he had in his body to try and get back up and return to the college. He hadn't missed any days yet during the semester, but it was still young. Whatever the case may have been, Damian did not wish to have a repeat of the trials that had plagued him during the semester before. The days upon days that he missed while he recovered from the accident. Sometimes, on the extremely cold days, which he wouldn't even have to worry about if he lived back in Los Angeles, he could still feel it. The tenderness in his ribs, the ribs that had been broken by the impact that was caused when the truck rammed into him as he shoved Michael out of the way. Although he had told Carly that he did not blame her for what had happened, and it was an entirely honest statement, he had never forgotten that she had a huge part to play in the accident, however unintentional it may have been.

They didn't speak of it very often, but that didn't mean that it wasn't there, the feeling, the knowledge of what had happened. Sonny wanted to sweep it under the rug and continue living life. Who could blame him? After all, everything that Sonny worked so hard for seemed to be so fragile, and if there was one thing that Sonny Corinthos never wanted to deal with it was losing the things that he loved, like his children or his wife. Both Damian and Carly knew that if Sonny found out what had happened, found out Carly's part in the plan, it would be over like that. Sonny wouldn't tolerate such actions taken by his wife. And Sonny tolerated quite a bit when it came to Carly and her antics. He would always love her, no matter what, because she had given him two children, but, if he found out, it was also a safe assumption that he would hate her for what she did to his family, their family.

The coffee shop was filled with a few of the locals that almost always seemed to be there at the same time that he was. Were he nearly as skeptical as his father, Damian would have thought something was amiss about their frequent appearances, but he wasn't nearly as bad as Sonny was when it came to worrying about things that may or may not have happened, even if there was a brief moment where he did indeed wonder if they were trying to do something to him, trying to find some information out. They didn't ever really look at him, though.

He was about to get in line for yet another cup of tea, something that he needed to both warm himself up and give himself a much needed caffeine boost. Try as he might, it wasn't exactly easy to make it through class after class without needing some sort of pick me up, and, apparently it was a sign that he was getting old. Old at twenty-one, that wasn't exactly something that he wanted to feel. Twenty-one years, and he still didn't know much about himself. The things that he thought he knew were taken from him when his mother died, and he spent the rest of the time basically in a freefall session. The things he thought he knew about his family were stolen from him when he came to Port Charles and discovered all the lies that had been told him and the rest of his family from the moment that they were born. And, most importantly, the innocence that he thought he could hold onto forever, for as long as he lived was destroyed with one gunshot that continued to echo in his mind each time he let his guard down. It was impossible to get sleep sometimes. Each time he let his guard down, it was there, a painful reminder of everything that he had been through, everything that he had sacrificed. The worst of it came with the knowledge that, given the choice, he would do it all again if he was forced to. Like it or not, he would kill someone who was threatening someone that he cared about to protect that person, or to protect himself. Before he would have believed that there would have been another way, that they could have found some sort of common ground that would allow them to solve everything without violence. But now he understood things better. Now Damian understood that the world he lived in was no longer nearly as gray as he thought. There was black and white, and, sadly, he lived most of his life in the darker black section than the pure white.

The line wasn't excruciatingly long, but it was long enough to force a halt as he waited for people in front of him to order what they wanted. It was then that he looked around the small building and saw the boy sitting in the corner, looking at a magazine that had to have been on the table, his eyes focused entirely on that magazine as if it was the only thing that made any sense at all. Moving away from the line, Damian walked over, "What are you doing here?"

Dillon turned his head up and looked at his best friend. Was this a good idea? He needed someone to talk to, someone who knew what had happened, which left Brook out of the picture entirely, and Ned as well, because he didn't want to talk about Ned. Nor did he wish to worry Georgie about what had happened. After all, there was nothing that his girlfriend could do about it. "I was waiting for you…"

"You're supposed to be at school right now," Damian replied, looking at the clock that was hanging on the wall. He didn't know the Port Charles High School schedule all that well, but he did know that the day was unlikely to be over just after noon.

"I couldn't go to school today…"

Damian sat on the chair across the table from Dillon, leaning over. Of course he couldn't go to school, his ex-sister-in-law, someone who he had just met a few weeks ago but was obviously connected to through some fashion or another had just been in an accident. Not a terrible one, but still, an accident nonetheless. "Do they know?"

Dillon didn't need to ask who 'they' were in order to know just who Damian was talking about. Courtney and Jason. His guardians, although not legally. If something happened to him, the school would still call his mother. People knew that he had moved out of the mansion, but, unless Tracy herself decided that she wanted to bring him back, there really was nothing that they could do. "I don't even think they would care…"

"What are you talking about?" Damian asked. "Of course they would care. They took you in when your mother decided that you couldn't stay at the mansion anymore. Dillon, they care about you."

"No, they tolerate me. They feel badly for me because of what happened, and they wouldn't want to disappoint you. Face it, the only reason why I'm even at the penthouse is because of my friendship with you, Damian. If it wasn't for that, I would be just like all the other Quartermaine's aside from Emily and Justus to Jason and Courtney, I wouldn't even register a blip on their radar."

"Where's all this hostility coming from?"

"It isn't hostility, its realism."

"You truly believe that they couldn't care less about you? That the only reason they're letting you stay in the penthouse with them is because of the fact that you're my best friend? Come on now, Dillon, you can't be serious about that…"

"Why not?"

"Because it's just stupid…"

"So now I'm an idiot?"

"No… of course not, I just think that you're being too hard on yourself and on them. Why do you believe that they don't care about you, that they're just tolerating you for the sake of not having a guilty conscience?"

"They never let me in," Dillon replied softly. He didn't even know how much it truly bothered him until he actually thought about it. The way that they handled themselves, the way that they kept secrets from him. More Jason than Courtney, but even she wasn't immune to just looking at him as if she was trying to deem him worthy of the information that she could have given him, and almost always the same answer came: he wasn't. "I've lived with them for how long? Four months or so… and they still treat me like I'm more of a house guest than anything else."

"You don't think I feel the same way?"

Dillon scoffed, "Now you're just trying to make me feel better. Of course you don't feel the same way, Damian. You're Sonny's child, he would never, ever, shut you out of his life that way?"

"He would…"

"How do you know?"

"Because he did it before, remember?" Damian asked. "I know we didn't know each other for a little while when I came here, Dillon, but I know I've told you about what happened when I first got here, the way that my father kept everything from me because he thought that he was doing me a favor by keeping me in the dark the same way that he keeps Michael and Morgan in the dark, despite the fact that I'm not a child, that I can understand things that neither of them could."

"Well, yeah, but he only did that for a little while…"

Damian shook his head, "He still does it. Not as much, but he still does it. And you know what? You want to know the truth? I wish he still did, because, if he did, then that would mean that he didn't acknowledge the part of me that I don't want to believe exists. Do you know what I had to do in order to 'get in' with my father? To be seen as more than just a child to him? I had to destroy a part of myself that I never wanted tainted." He kept it vague, because of all the people who were around him, all the students who could overhear the fact that he had murdered Lorenzo Alcazar. That would go over just fine and dandy, quite possibly being the front page story on the weekly edition of the school paper. Damian could envision the titles that would be emblazoned upon the paper, all of them making some sort of connection to how he came into his birth right as a cold blooded killer. The thoughts weren't very pleasant.

"So…"

"So, if you think that they're shutting you out, if you want to be a part of their lives, to know the things that they know, trust me, Dillon, you don't. Because you don't want to have to deal with the baggage that comes with it. They've had a lot more practice than either of us, and I'm barely able to keep on functioning as it is. You've seen me when I'm at my lowest point, when I can't even watch a movie with a gun because of what it does to my mind. Do you think that they want you to have the same sort of problem? That they want you to wake up in a cold sweat because you had a dream that was so horrible, one that made you remember everything that you did that you wished you could take back?"

"I just… I want to feel like I'm more than just a person that is kept around for pity… especially from Jason. He's my cousin, Damian, and I've always admired him for what he's done. Not, you know, for that, but because he broke free of the bonds that tied him to our family."

"Talk to him about it."

"Like that's going to work…"

"You're selling him short, and you're selling yourself short, too. You think that you don't matter to Jason, and you think that, given the chance, he would send you back to the mansion without a second thought instead of keeping you at the penthouse with him and his wife…"

"Basically, yeah," that about summed it up. Damian neglected to mention the part where Jason did the happy dance because of the fact that he was finally getting rid of Dillon, but Dillon kept that to himself, mostly because the idea of Jason doing a happy dance, or any sort of dance, just didn't seem right.

"You can't hope to understand what goes on inside that man's head, Dillon," Damian noted. "And I'm not saying that because of what has happened to him, I'm saying it because nobody can understand what anyone else is thinking, not really. The only way that you're ever going to find out for sure, one way or the other, is if you actually talk to him."

"And what happens if he tells me that he doesn't want me at the penthouse?"

"Why don't you deal with that when the time comes?" Damian asked, smiling softly. He smiled because he believed that Jason would never, ever, say that he wanted Dillon out of the picture. But, he could have been wrong, and then what would happen? Refusing to believe that someone as kind as his Uncle Jason would actually be all right with just throwing the boy back into the lions den that was the Quartermaine Mansion, Damian quickly tried to do something that would alleviate the stress from the conversation that they had. "Why don't I get you something to drink?"

"No… I'm fine, thanks."

"Dillon, come on, what's the point of being Sonny Corinthos's son if I can't spread the wealth just a little bit? Besides, you look like you could use something to calm yourself down, after all the worrying that you've done."

Dillon snickered and stood up, "All right, how can I say no to something like that?"

"Looks like the line got longer… we'll just have to deal."

"Hey, Damian," Dillon waited for the boy to turn around, "Thanks."

"Don't mention it." They shared a knowing glance at one another, telling each other that, when the chips were down, they'd be there for each other, because that was what friends did, and friends were what they were.


	47. Throwing Names Around

Samsonlove- I wasn't watching GH around that time, either, but it's basically been hammered into my head that the BJ heart storyline was like golden, much like Luke and Laura. You know the whole 'you will love Luke and Laura, they are your gods…' that sort of deal. Durant has found out the truth about his daughter, yes, but who is to say that it will come out so quickly? It hasn't yet, in my writing, although there are more and more hints to it coming out eventually. And yes, the Dillon and Jason conversation shall come soon enough.

Story-

Port Charles Hotel-

It felt so weird, going into the Port Charles Hotel without anything and knowing that she was going to check it. Lois wasn't sure just what it was about the moment that made her feel so odd, but there was something that made it seem strange regardless. Her mind raced with the possibilities. Was it because of the fact that she was going into a hotel without anything to bring with her? Maybe it was just the way that she felt after getting checked out of the hospital. Lois had been in the hospital a few times before, but there was something different about the visit that had just ended, something that made her very afraid. It was because of what happened, that had to be the reason. That, and the person who had caused it.

Lois couldn't help but look around the hotel. It was theirs, the Quartermaine's, they owned the hotel, just like they pretty much owned the hospital, and just like they owned almost everything else about Port Charles. The only way that she was going to get out of the painful loop that she had found herself in was if she did the same thing that she had done before: if she took her child and ran. But this time would it be harder? Yes, it would, because the last time she did it, Brook was too young to really understand. Now, now she would fight. If it wasn't for her father, then it would almost assuredly be because of the boy that she had fallen in love with. Sonny and Damian may have been able to underplay the feelings that Brook was feeling for the boy, but Lois… she knew. The way that Brook, who tended to carry herself with so much self-confidence, just sort of fell apart when she mentioned him, the way that she would blush when she would talk about how he was so nice to her… it reminded Lois quite a bit about the way that she used to think about Ned, when she still loved him.

Lois closed her eyes as she waited for someone to help her find her room. Did she hate Ned? Maybe… maybe not. Once upon a time Lois would have hated the fact that she could have had such a strong feeling of hate for her ex-husband, the father of her child, but now, she didn't know. Certainly Lois was angry with Ned, and she had every right to be. He had called on the flaws that she had as a mother, and, while Lois knew that they were there, hearing someone else say them just hurt her more than she thought it would. Her own illusions about her relationship with her daughter had been torn apart without any sort of sympathy for what it could do to her, and that was all Ned's fault. But… at the same time, it was not possible to just forget everything that had happened between the two of them. Ned and Lois had a lot of good years together. She would never forget that. She could never forget that. And, every time she saw her daughter she saw a little more of Ned in Brook, and each time Lois saw that part of Brook, she silently thanked Ned for giving it to her, because, despite all the negativity that was flowing through them and their relationship, Ned had a lot of wonderful qualities that he had bestowed upon Brook, least of all being her musical talent.

In the end, the only answer that Lois could give herself was that she wasn't sure if she hated Ned or not, and, in that uncertainty, Lois found herself even more irate because it was one thing to know one way or the other how a person felt about another person, but to not know at all… that just proved maddening. Opening her eyes, Lois saw that there was still not a single person who was there to help her. Sonny certainly would not have allowed her to be at a place where the help wasn't at least prompt, and she hated to see the gesture of good faith that he had given her go to such complete waste. More bitterness came into her being as she slammed her palm onto the bell that was on the desk. "I need service!"

"I told them to stay away for a little while…"

Lois looked over to the doorway to see Ned standing there, holding a bundle of flowers in his hand. "What gave you the right to do something like that?"

"My family owns the hotel, remember?" Ned wondered, knowing full well that Lois could not have forgotten. One of the initiation procedures into the Quartermaine family happened to be remembering each and every part of Port Charles that was owned by the family, from the big things down to each individual bench that was in the park. Lois had forgotten the tiny little details, but the big ones, they remained in her mind. His presence no longer being kept a secret, Ned walked further into the hotel.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Lois asked, not willing, or able, to give Ned the benefit of the doubt. Sonny had gotten the room for her so that she could get away from Ned. He knew that was what she wanted, and they were never married. If Ned understood Lois, even on some small level, then he should have realized that the last thing she would have wanted was to be spending time next to someone who had caused her such great pain.

"I didn't want the two of us to go out like that," Ned replied as honestly as he could. He was one of the few honest members of the Quartermaine family, at least on some level. Ned would tell lies like the best of them, when it was necessary, but, if it wasn't, he liked to keep everything as truthful as possible. Ned had seen the way that lies could destroy the people that they were told to, and he was not willing to allow himself to become one of the many causalities of that lifelong war. Standing mere inches from Lois, Ned rose his hand up to hand her the bundle of flowers. "Here, a peace offering. They're you're favorite… not very easy to find in the middle of January."

"You think this is going to make up for what you did to me yesterday, Ned?" Lois asked, grabbing the flowers and slamming them onto the counter so hard that the bell once more rang with the impact that it felt, and chunks of the flowers fell to the ground, torn apart by rage, unable to maintain their fragile beauty. "Because it doesn't. If you think you can just buy me off, then you really never understood me, did you? I may have been married to a Quartermaine for a little while, but that doesn't mean that I ever truly became one."

"Why are you so mad?" Ned asked, unable to keep the question from coming out.

"Why do you think I'm mad?" Lois growled. "You told me that I didn't understand my daughter nearly as well as I thought I did. You did the one thing that I could never tolerate, Ned, you challenged my abilities as a parent, you undermined my feelings about my daughter, our daughter."

"Like you never did the same…"

"When you wanted to spend time with Brook, did I ever once say that you couldn't? Did I ever once turn you away when you stopped in for one of your surprise visits? No, because I understood that, even though you had other priorities, Brook was always going to be important to you."

"But you never even let me bring my daughter back here to Port Charles. Aside from when she was a baby, this is the only time she's ever been around the place where she was born. The place where we thought she was going to grow up, the place that we thought we would be able to raise a family together."

"Those were just pipe dreams, Ned," Lois replied with a harsh whisper. "I realized that a long time ago, when I left you the first time, when I decided that I couldn't stay in Port Charles because of the way that your family would always come before me and my daughter…"

"You never gave me a chance to realize…"

"I gave you plenty of chances," Lois cut in before he could finish it. She was tired of letting him be the one who ended up sounding like he suffered the most, like he wasn't the one who went through the pain of all the lonely nights. She was the one who did that. She was the one who raised a daughter on her own because her daughter's father was too busy with everything else that was going on in his life to pay attention to someone that should have been more important. "You think that you needed to have your eyes opened up in order to understand that? I'm sorry, but I believe that when a man becomes a father they automatically sense that everything in their life has changed in some way, and that it shouldn't be something that they need 'time' to understand."

"And this is where it comes back to Sonny, doesn't it?" Ned asked, more than a little offended about what was happening. After all, he was trying to find some way to make peace between the two of them, and she wasn't even going to attempt it herself? How was that fair? "Sonny comes in on his white horse and rescues you when you need someone to hold your hand."

"Sonny was there for me when I needed someone to be there for me, I won't let you talk about him like he did something that was wrong. He cares about me a lot, he always has, and he always will. Besides, this doesn't even have anything to do with Sonny, I don't know why you brought him up."

"Because your thug best friend threatened me by saying that you had been though enough pain, that I had caused you enough torment for one life. You know Sonny, he never actually comes out and threatens to have a person killed, but people should get the general idea. I guess I should start wearing a bulletproof vest now, or have people with SWAT armor tailing me around."

"Sonny would never do something like that."

"Open your eyes, Lois, I know you enjoy blindly following Sonny's words like he's speaking gospel, but eventually you just need to cut the cord that connects the two of you."

"Says the man who is attached to his mother just as much as the day that he came out of her…"

"That's completely different."

"You're right, Sonny isn't evil. Tracy is."

"If I were you, I wouldn't use the words isn't and evil in the same line when describing Sonny."

"He never caused me to get into a car accident because things that he told me were so hurtful that I was a complete wreck. Sonny would never do something like that to a person, even someone that he wasn't particularly fond of, but you would, wouldn't you Ned?" Lois wanted to keep it from him, she didn't want him to know that it was his fault that she had gotten into that accident, but the way that he was attacking her best friend meant that something needed to be done, and the only way to shut Ned up was to often find something that was just so hard for him to accept that he was forced into being silent. A horrible tactic, for certain, but nonetheless worthy.

Ned looked at Lois, dumbstruck. It was true then? That feeling that he had? That he had done something that had placed his ex-wife in danger? Ned looked into Lois's eyes, they were filled with so much raw anger and other emotions, but he could also see one thing inside of them: truth. There was no denying it anymore… he truly had done something that had hurt Lois. "Had I known that it was going to have such a horrible impact on you, I never would have said those things."

"Well, you can't take them back now, and even if you didn't say them it doesn't mean that you wouldn't have thought them, or believed them. Face it, Ned, you never once trusted my abilities as a mother."

"That's not true."

"Save it, I don't want to speak with you anymore. Well, just one more thing, if you think that Sonny is going to kill you then you are a fool. He understands how important you are to Brook Lynn, lord only knows why she even cares about someone like you, but she does. Sonny knows that it would crush that girl if she had to deal with your death, so, just so you know, you're safe. And, if you're not certain, take my word for it. I didn't lie to you a second ago, what would make me lie now?"

"Lois…"

"Just call someone in here to help me, please," Lois replied, worn out from all the argument and the emotions that were brought up. Her head was starting to hurt again, although it was to be expected. Ned tended to have such an impact on her and her mental state. A nice, long overdue bath would be a nice way to counteract everything that she was going through. But, in order for that to happen, she needed Ned to lift the gates of service that he had closed.

Not arguing, because he knew that it would have been completely useless, Ned picked up the phone by the counter and dialed one of the numbers, "Yeah, this is Ned Ashton, we're done here, tell someone to help my ex-wife into her room, and make sure that her stay is comfortable." It was the least that he could do, after everything that he had put her through. They were all right, every single one of them. The way that they spoke to him, the way that they looked at him. It was going to be the way that he looked at himself in the mirror for a long time coming. "Goodbye, Lois."

Lois said nothing, only turning her back so that she did not watch him walk away. She had no desire to watch him leave, although she had every desire to feel him gone. With her eyes distracted, Lois did not see the final petal on one of the flowers fall to the ground, amid the rest of the wreckage.

General Hospital-

Although it was painful to go through the motions with everything that was on her mind, Bobbie had no choice. She still had a job that she needed to do, and she was going to do it. She had worked hard to earn everything that she had gotten in her life after she had given up being a prostitute, and she was going to be damned if she let anyone, especially John, take that away from her. He had taken away so much already, including a final part of her self-respect.

Bobbie walked through the halls, clipboard in hand, checking on the patients that she was assigned. She had seen Lois once before the woman left and was quite happy to see that everything was going to be all right. Many people liked Lois, and Bobbie was one of them. True, the relationship that Lois and Carly had was more than a little untamed, but that could be said for a lot of people and relationships with Carly. Nobody understood that aspect of her daughter better than Bobbie herself.

John had been searching the hospital for Bobbie, unable to keep the question inside of him any longer. When he found her he approached her, "Bobbie…"

"John, why are you here?"

"She's mine… isn't she?" John asked, his blue eyes tearing into her body, looking for an answer, one that he did not intend on leaving without.


	48. Spencers Stick Together

Bobbie knew what he was talking about, and, as much as she could try and tell herself that he couldn't have known, that there was no possible way that John could have discovered the one thing that she had been hiding from him for so long, she knew that, in the end, there was no way to admit the truth, at least to herself. But, admitting the truth to John? That was something else. Something that she wasn't willing to do. Not now, not ever.

"Bobbie," John grew tired and angry with the games that she was playing with him. After all, Carly was his daughter, there was no denying that fact anymore, and if she tried, he would find a way to make her suffer for lying, for keeping him unaware of the fact that he had a daughter who might have needed him. "I'm not going to ask you again. Tell me, right now, if Carly Corinthos is my daughter."

"What makes you think that she is?"

"She looks exactly like one of my relatives, Bobbie, my great aunt. She's a dead ringer for that lady. I can show you the picture, if you need it…"

"A picture can be edited."

"Stop lying to me!" John yelled. "Just tell me the truth, please!"

"Now you're requesting that I tell you the truth?" Bobbie could have snickered, and, if it was any other situation, she probably would have, but what she was going through at that moment was too distracting for her to even think about taking the smallest amount of delight in John's discomfort. "My, how the mighty have fallen."

"I'm not going to ask you again, Barbara Jean!" John growled, grabbing her wrists.

"John, stop it! You're hurting me…" Bobbie would not give him the benefit of watching her cry. He had made her cry far too many times in the past and she refused to become that person again. She was done crying of John Durant, she had been done for years and years.

"Tell me the truth!"

"I'm not going to tell you anything in the state of mind you're in right now. Even if I told you, you would think that I was lying, or you would get upset at me if you thought it was the truth. What would people say if they saw you right now?" Bobbie pulled herself away from John with all her might, ripping her wrists out of his hands and rubbing them gently. The pain was gone a moment later, but the vision would stay with her forever.

"I'm sorry…"

"Sorry doesn't do much, John," Bobbie replied spitefully. "What would people say if I told them that you just assaulted me because of something that I may or may not have done? Do you think your approval rates would be as high as they are right now? No, they would go down tremendously, and it would all be your fault."

"Don't turn this into a game. Just tell me what you know. I deserve to know the truth, one way or the other. I deserve to know if Carly is my daughter." No matter what she said, even if she said no, John would believe that she truly was his daughter, because of that uncanny resemblance. It was a miracle that he never picked up on it before, the first time that he saw her. He knew that there was something familiar about her, but it wasn't until that night that he could really put a finger on what it was that seemed to grab him so much.

"Why would it matter?"

"Because it matters to me."

"You never once wanted to have a child before, did you?" Bobbie asked. "Remember? I asked you if you ever wanted to start a family, I gave myself up to you. I did the one thing that someone shouldn't have done if they were the person that I used to be, I fell in love with one of my clients, I fell in love with you. But you didn't want me as anything more than just a constant sex toy to be used at your beck and call, and you crushed me when you said that you didn't feel anything for me, that you would never want me like I wanted you. And now you have the nerve to ask me if my daughter, who I love so much, is actually a part of you…"

"It would make sense, wouldn't it?" John asked, the temper becoming more intense inside of him. How he wanted to just shake the answer out of Bobbie, and, if it came to that point, he wasn't sure that he would be able to stop himself. He wanted to believe that he could, but, at that moment, he wasn't sure. "After all, you were a spurned lover. What better way to get back at the man then to leave with his baby, not even telling him that he was going to be a father."

"It wouldn't have mattered, you wouldn't have stayed…"

"So now you're admitting it?" John wondered, hearing the shift in Bobbie's voice, the same way that she used to talk when she was thinking about something, or when she was hurt. He had thought about the way that he crushed her that day he rejected her, although he never thought that it was a decision that he would regret, until that exact moment. "If she is my daughter, then that I means that I have two grandsons and a child that I don't know anything about, that I don't have a connection with."

"She isn't, John," Bobbie stated defiantly. "I don't know why you think that Carly is your daughter, but she isn't. And thank you for forcing me to remember the fact that I may never know who gave me my precious daughter… thank you for making me remember the fact that I used to be a horrible person."

"I never once told you that you needed to be that way."

"No, but you certainly didn't try and help me find a way out of it, did you? I had to do that myself, with the help of my brother, but never with you, the person who I truly thought would actually give a damn about me." Speaking to him about the times of the past only brought up the memories again, and none of them were particularly pleasant. "Why don't you leave, John, you've done enough here."

"I don't believe you, Bobbie. I still believe that Carly Corinthos is my daughter, and I'm going to keep on hounding you until I find out one way or the other."

"Leave her alone!" Lucky demanded as he turned around the corner. He hadn't heard enough of the conversation to get curious, but he heard enough to hear that John was threatening her, his Aunt, someone who had always been there for him, even when his own mother couldn't be.

"Officer Spencer… I hope you understand just who you are taking that tone with."

"Some selfish, self-serving bastard who doesn't understand what it means to be a decent human being is my immediate guess," Lucky replied, completely without any sort of regret in his voice. He wasn't going to stand by and allow John Durant to destroy his family. In theory, the protection, or rather the yearning for that protection, would have extended to Sonny and the rest of them, but, in the end, it didn't. Lucky wanted them to wallow in their own mistakes. They brought John Durant into town, and everyone was suffering for it. "Leave."

"This isn't over…" John said as he walked passed Bobbie.

"Oh, I think it is," Bobbie muttered under her breath, but she knew that John was right, that it wasn't going to be over anytime soon, that everything had just gotten worse. Much worse.

"Are you all right?" Lucky asked, focusing his attention on his aunt. In Luke's frequent absences, it fell onto Lucky to take care of the people that they cared about, since Bobbie meant so much to him, the boy was more than willing to pick up the slack. "Why was he treating you like that?"

"Because John's the type of man that likes to nurse grudges…"

"What does he have against you, Aunt Bobbie?"

She turned away, "Lucky… please… I've already been through so much today. Can you just ignore what happened, at least for a little while?" She knew that it was futile to have him completely forget the whole ordeal, but she certainly did not want to speak about it with her nephew. Not because she didn't love him, but because the less people who knew the better it was for her.

"But…"

"I'm asking you, as your Aunt, to forget about it. I can deal with this in my own way, I just don't want to have to drag you in."

"I want to help you."

"And I appreciate the fact that you want to help me more than you'll ever know, but, you're like your father. I know how much you hate to think about that, but it's true. You think that you can find some way to fix every problem that you come across, and that just doesn't work out the way that you want. There are limits to even your power, Lucky. Both you and Luke need to realize that."

Lucky did hate being compared to Luke. It was once something that he loved, that he felt that he was being honored with. Being compared to Luke Spencer, the hero of Port Charles, the man who could do everything. Lucky once idolized his father, but that boy was no longer around. Like many people, Lucky grew up, and when he grew up he realized one thing: his father had faults. A lot of faults. "If I forced myself onto you, into your problem, that would just be me acting even more like him, wouldn't it?"

"I'm afraid so…"

Lucky gave a meek smile as he scratched the back of his head. "All right, I'm going to give you what you want, at least for now, but I swear, if I see that man attacking you again, all bets are off. And, if you need someone…"

"You'll be the first person I call." Bobbie walked over and hugged him, "I'm glad that you came when you did, truly, I am."

"I just needed to check and see if there was anything that Lois had left after the car accident that would help the case. A statement that said that she was entirely at fault, something like that. But there wasn't…"

"It doesn't matter why you were here, you just were."

"But now I really should get back to the station," Lucky commented breaking himself away from Bobbie. "Remember what I said…"

"I will." Bobbie watched Lucky leave, and her heart sank. She said that he would be the first person that she called, but he wasn't going to be the first person that she called. Frantically, Bobbie walked into an empty room nearby and grabbed the phone. She dialed one number, one that she had memorized. After a few rings, the owner answered, "I need to see you… our situation just got a lot more complicated. Can you come to the hospital? As quickly as possible, please." With the phone call ended, Bobbie sat on the edge of the bed in the room and sank her head into her hands. Why did things have to end up the way that they were? Why couldn't they have ended up better?

Corinthos Household-

Sonny had returned from the hospital long before, but it was only at that moment that he called the Port Charles Hotel to make sure that Lois was already all checked in. "Can you tell me if Lois Cerullo has checked in, please?" A moment of pause as the person on the other side fished for the answer, and then affirmation. "She has? Thank you." He would give her the time that she would likely need to adjust to the place, he just wanted to make sure that there was no trouble that had happened.

Jason opened the door without knocking, as he often did. If he and Sonny weren't best friends, if they didn't think of each other like brothers as they often did, it probably would have been a little rude, but Jason didn't bother to pay much attention to etiquette. It sort of defeated the purpose of being a hitman. "Anything I need to worry about?" Jason wondered, seeing Sonny hang up the telephone.

"No, just dealing with what happened to Lois last night. I know that Ned's your cousin, but… I'm so mad at him for what he did."

"Ned always seemed like the type of person who wouldn't care who he stepped over. He's a Quartermaine…"

"Dillon isn't like that," Sonny commented. "And neither are you."

"We got lucky…"

"Sorry," Sonny said with a shake of his head, "I know how much you hate talking about them, so I won't keep with the discussion…"

"I had Stan bug the hotel room where Durant is currently staying and we found something…"

"Something big?"

"We don't know yet," Jason replied. "It could be something big. There's no voices, just sound, and it sounded like he was looking at something and whatever he found seemed to have struck a cord with him. He left in a hurry, and he had already ordered some food, so we know that he wasn't planning on leaving."

"Do you think he knows that we have his room bugged?"

Jason shook his head, "We had someone on the inside do it, and the bug is almost impossible to detect. Durant might think that he knows who he is dealing with, but he really doesn't know a damned thing about either of us. We're going to win this, Sonny."

Sonny looked at Jason, "Yeah… yeah, we are." There was confidence in Sonny's voice, but he knew that it was just fake confidence. He wished that he could feel just as confident as he truly sounded, but it did not seem like it was going to happen. Rare was it when Sonny Corinthos felt fear, and he always hated feeling it.


	49. Ease The Pain

General Hospital, Rooftops-

"You know, if people knew that we were meeting up here, they would talk."

Bobbie, who was looking out at the quickly dying light, did not turn around to face him. The light seemed to be something of a metaphor for her, as if the light of hope that she had for her secret being kept was slowly dying out, and it was all her fault. She could have just been honest with Carly from the beginning, told her who her father was when she asked. She could have just let the curiosity die, instead of sending Damian and Maxie to New York to go and see if they would find her. The snowball effect that happened was entirely her fault, and there was no way that she could ever deny that.

"Bobbie?"

"He knows…"

"What do you mean, he knows?" It wasn't like Bobbie to speak cryptically about anything. That was why he liked her as much as he did, because, when other people were trying to give him the runaround, Bobbie remained honest and straightforward, certainly not a quality that her daughter had acquired.

"John… he knows the truth, about Carly…"

"What?" There was shock in his voice, impossible not to detect. It may have been Bobbie who was feeling the worst of the pain that came with John Durant's realization, but he felt it as well. After all, now that Durant knew, there was no telling what would happen. "How did he find out?"

"Carly seems to bear a striking resemblance to a relative of his," Bobbie couldn't hold the tears back any longer. She had tried to be strong, tried not to let her pain show itself to anyone, but now that he was here, someone who she trusted, someone who knew, Bobbie felt that she could let the anguish that she was feeling out, and she did. She walked over to him and hugged him, sobbing gently into his shoulder. "Everything is going to change now, isn't it?"

"You didn't tell him for sure, did you?"

Bobbie looked up, her eyes already red from the tears, "Of course I didn't, but he knows, Damian. John knows in his heart that Carly is his daughter… I should just tell her the truth, I should tell her that he is her father, that I've always known. But I'm afraid…"

"Afraid of what?"

"Afraid of losing her again." Bobbie pulled herself away and wrapped her arms around herself for comfort and protection. "I know you weren't here when it happened, but you must have heard it from someone: when Carly first came to Port Charles it was because she wanted to hurt me for giving her up like I did, and I won't say that I didn't deserve it, but we finally got through that. We managed to make the relationship that we have now, and I'm not saying that it is all good, but, for the most part, it is. If I let her know that I kept something like this from her the whole time she was asking, she might not forgive me. I might lose my relationship with my daughter again."

"No, you won't," Damian told her sympathetically while he placed a hand on her shoulder. "Carly… Carly will act like she always does, but she'll understand eventually. You did this to protect her, Bobbie. We both know you did. If she knew that John Durant was her father, then she would do everything that she could to find him, and that would have only wrecked her family, because of everything that is going to happen if he does talk to her."

"She won't see it like that. Carly never sees the things in front of her that are so obvious, especially when she's hurt."

"Then we'll make her see it the way that it really happened, you and me. I'm not entirely innocent in this, you know."

Bobbie shook her head, "I can't ask you to do something like that for me, Damian, it would be wrong."

"Who said you were asking?" He replied lightly. "I'm telling you that if Carly wants to try and take you down for what you did, then she's going to need to take me down, too. We were trying to protect her and everyone around her. You knew that if she realized that John was her father and she confronted him that he wouldn't rest until he found a way to bring down her family, our family. If there's one thing that Carly understands it's that we do things to protect ourselves, even though they might not seem all that wise at the time."

"Do you really think that it will work?"

"We'll just have to wait and see, won't we? In the meantime, don't tell her anything, Bobbie. If he doesn't approach her, if he doesn't tell her what he thinks he knows, then she won't know either, and right now we need to play it as safely as possible. The longer we wait, the easier it will be because you'll have time to breathe and prepare yourself for what you're going to say."

"You're right…"

"I should talk to Maxie about it. She'll need to know, too. Just in case. Is she volunteering today?" Given everything that had happened during the day, with Lois, with Dillon, and now with Bobbie, Maxie's working schedule just didn't seem like a priority. She would have to understand. Hopefully.

"No… and yesterday she seemed like she was upset about something. She left before her shift ended. I told her that she could go, because she was a volunteer and she wasn't required to be here… but she wouldn't tell me why. You haven't talked to her today?"

"No, I haven't," he thought about why she would be in a hurry to leave the hospital mid-shift, that was highly unlike her. She liked to wait around, she liked to know that something she was doing was finally doing some good for people instead of hurting herself, like she used to do. "I'll call her in a little while, make sure that she knows what's going on."

"I'm scared…"

"Don't be, everything will find a way to make itself all right. We've been through worse than this before, haven't we? And when I say 'we' I mean all of us, myself included. Bobbie, Carly loves you, she knows that you would never do something that would intentionally hurt her, and she knows how important you are to Michael and Morgan. She's not going to abandon that just because of one thing that you did. I know that."

"Thank you for coming so quickly…"

"You're like a surrogate grandmother to me, Bobbie, and I've always been a grandmother's boy. It's a weakness, a sickness, an addiction, I know, but I don't mind it one bit."

She looked over her shoulder to see his smiling face, the way that his eyes seemed to welcome her with warmth and security. For a brief moment in time, Bobbie truly did believe that everything would be all right, that they would find a way to make everything work. The hard part was going to be believing that feeling, and making sure that it would stick.

Outside Kelly's-

Dillon waited at one of the tables outside of Kelly's. Usually, the two of them met inside, but, in this case it was something that he did not want to talk about inside, where people could hear him. Elizabeth was there, and she smiled at him and waved. Dillon waved back, thankful for the conversation that he had with both Elizabeth and Damian earlier in the day. It made him feel like there were people around him who he could depend on, and that was something that he needed, especially given who he was. People didn't understand what it meant to be a Quartermaine, especially an outcast Quartermaine like himself, one that didn't fit the mold that everyone swore by. He cared about his family, even loved them, despite his constant refusal to admit it both to himself and to others, but they were hardly ever there for him. Ned was there a lot of the time, as was Lila when she was alive, but everyone else just seemed to fall off the wayside, especially his mother. It was because of his upbringing that Dillon always felt like he needed to tackle things alone, like there wasn't going to be a person around him who would be there to give him a hand, and it was only recently, since arriving in Port Charles and meeting Georgie, that he realized he could depend on the people around him, that there were people who truly cared about him. The fact that there were such people made him very, very happy, but the happiness that he felt was not enough to overpower the unhappiness that he felt.

"There you are…" Georgie turned around the corner and saw her boyfriend at the table. She was glad to see him, and to know that he was all right. Dillon often joked about missing school, because he hated it so much, but he rarely ever did miss it, because it was one of the only times where he didn't have to worry about Mac coming around and ruining whatever it was that they were going to do. "Dillon, are you all right?" Georgie asked as she sat down across the table from him, looking as he averted his eyes away from her, something that he only did when he was troubled. She reached over and touched his hand gently with hers, "Whatever it is, you can tell me…"

"I'm sorry."

Georgie was taken back by the sudden apology, something that she wasn't expecting him to say. "What do you mean? You're sorry? What do you have to be sorry about?"

"When you called me earlier today, when you left that voice message on my phone, I knew that you were calling, I saw your name on the phone, but I didn't pick it up. I ignored your call, and for that, I really am sorry."

She frowned, "Why did you not pick it up if you were right there?"

"Because I knew that you would ask me why I wasn't at school today, and I knew that if you asked I would have to lie, or tell you the truth, and I didn't really want to do either."

"Dillon…"

"But I realize now that I shouldn't keep things from you, because I love you too much to even risk losing you, Georgie. I'm sorry that I didn't trust the bond that we have enough to get passed the feeling that I have inside of me that tells me that I shouldn't try and burden the people that I care about with my problems."

"You're never a burden to me, Dillon, and if you have a problem then that is something that I want to help you get through. You've helped me so many times before. You've helped me come out of my shell, you've helped me be the person who I really wanted to be but I thought that people wouldn't accept me for. You taught me to be an individual instead of following the typecast that people had put on me. If anything, I'll always owe you for that."

"You don't owe me anything."

"And you don't have to worry about me thinking that you have too many things on your plate for me to handle. I'll always be there to help you, always."

Dillon smiled softly. The words were filled with so much emotion and truth that it really struck him, too bad he couldn't believe all of it. But he did believe that she would understand him at that moment. "Lois was in a car accident last night, Georgie. That's why I didn't go to school today, my mind was too focused on what had happened last night that I knew I wouldn't be able to concentrate on anything else."

"Is she…"

"No, she's fine. She's already out of the hospital, but… I don't know, I just got really, really scared."

"You care about Lois, and you care about Brook." Georgie then realized that she was not asking about something that was relatively important, "How is Brook?"

"I haven't seen her today. Some kind of Uncle I am…"

"Dillon, were you there for her last night?"

"I tried to be, but she didn't want anything to do with me. The only people that she wanted to see were her mother, her father and Damian." There was the smallest tinge of jealousy in his voice. After all, he was family, Damian wasn't, but Brook wanted to be with Damian more than she wanted to be with her own flesh and blood. He understood why, he just didn't particularly like it.

"You tried to be there for her, and that's all that matters. She wasn't at school either, and I was wondering why the two of you had missed school at the same time. I almost thought that something had happened… and I guess I was right."

"I just wanted to apologize for shutting you out of my life like that. I should have realized that you would have only wanted to help me, but I was an idiot and I didn't, because… just because that's the way I am, I guess. Sometimes I don't think that I can trust the people that I love. It's just a part of who I am, how I was raised."

"Just tell me that the next time something like this happens, and I hope it never does, but just in case it does… you'll know that I won't even try and run away from you. These people are important to you, Dillon, and that makes them important to me."

Dillon nodded, saying nothing, only watching as Georgie walked over to him and gently kissed his lips, resting her hands around his neck. The connection that he felt with his girlfriend was so strong and passionate, how could he have been so foolish to deny it? Dillon understood that there were parts of himself that he did not completely comprehend, parts of himself that were so dark that they scared him.


	50. Just Listen

Note: Happy 50th Chapter, Ya'll!

Samsonlove- Dillon and Georgie have been forced into a corner as of late. Their scene at Liz and Lucky's wedding was wonderful, but that was about the only time they've done much of merit ever since the show stopped giving even a little bit of focus on the stalker storyline, which is stupid and pointless, all the teen characters have been pushed out, sans Maxie because of her connection to Jesse. Since Dillon is my favorite character on the show, I want to incorporate him in the story, and Georgie comes with him, so she gets a piece of the pie as well. Carly and Sonny will be understandably shocked and angry. Durant is, in no way, a subtle person. Kyle was horrid, that's why he's dead here.

Story-

Port Charles-

Try as she might, Maxie didn't find herself enjoying the date that she had made in such a random stroke of the moment with Robbie. There was almost nothing about him that she enjoyed. The way he talked about how he was trying to get a new high score on the latest Tony Hawk, or who he thought was going to be in the Super Bowl that year, all the things that he talked about were just there. In some way, the same could be said of Damian, who was always talking about his medical stuff, or the piano, or some other interest that she didn't share, but, unlike with Robbie, Maxie wanted to know those things. And, Damian also listened to her when she was talking about things that he didn't quite understand himself.

It was hard to find a place for the two of them to eat. She would usually go to Kelly's, but that was out of the question, with Mike and Elizabeth both working there almost constantly. It ended up being that the two of them needed to go out of town, to a neighboring town for a somewhat decent meal. He did pay for the meal, she gave him credit for that.

Robbie was sitting in the car, his car, with Maxie in the passenger's seat. A part of the boy couldn't believe it. He was sitting there with Maxie Jones. One of the most beautiful girls from high school. Kyle's old girlfriend. And, when Kyle had someone, nobody else was allowed to even look at her, it was one of his rules. Kyle may have been a demanding bastard, but he was still Robbie's friend, and, for some reason that would be unknown to just about anyone who truly understood what kind of a person Kyle actually was, he missed the boy. "Hey… Maxie…"

"Yeah?"

"Why did you decide to ask me out like that?" Robbie wondered. "I mean, I'm not going to say that I didn't want to do this, or that I didn't enjoy our dinner, but, come on, you never paid me any attention in high school, and last I checked you were pretty involved with someone else…"

Maxie looked away. He knew about her and Damian? It wasn't like she didn't expect people to know who the mob boss's oldest son was dating, but she didn't expect it to be the topic that everyone knew, even the people like Robbie. "We broke up…"

"So am I your rebound boy?"

"Robbie…"

"Answer the question, Maxie."

She sighed, "He hurt me, all right? I didn't think that he would ever hurt me the way that he did, but I was wrong. I trusted him so much that I only ended up getting burned in the end. I don't know why I do that, I've done it before… with Kyle… it's like I get into these relationships that are only going to screw me up in the end, and I fool myself into thinking that it's something else."

"I can make you feel something else… think something else… make the pain go away, at least for a little while."

Maxie turned her blue eyes over to him. Robbie was a lot like Kyle, in that they did the same things. However, unlike Kyle, Robbie did not end up overdosing. Once upon a time, the prospect of using drugs to get rid of her problems would have been enough to have Maxie going headlong into the drug induced haze, but she couldn't do that anymore. She had grown as a person, even without Damian there to give her a hand. She didn't need him to make decisions for herself, and she refused to become the type of person that she was before. "Robbie, I stopped doing everything… and I don't want to start again."

"Who said anything about drugs?" Robbie replied, a sly grin as he leaned towards her and placed a hand on her cheek. "No strings, Maxie. I promise. If you don't want to feel anything for that guy, then try being with another, even for a little while."

Maxie was repulsed by the touch. It felt like she was violating something that was pure and good, but, he had been the one who violated it first, the one who tarnished the beautiful thing that they once had. Why did it fall onto her to be the one who held back? Why did she have to sacrifice her own happiness for the sake of another man, one who no longer treated her like she was important to him? No answers came to her, which, at least to Maxie Jones, was a sign that it was all right to do what she was thinking about doing. "My dad's gone… let's go to my place." Robbie was right. She just wanted to feel something else.

Docks-

"Maxie? It's me. I don't know where you are, but when you get this message I hope you can call me back right away. I really need to talk with you, it's important. Really important. So, call me when you get the chance, all right? I love you. Bye." He closed the shell of the phone and stuck it back in his pocket. He hadn't spoken with her for the entire day, and while he wasn't one of those people who needed to be attached at the hip with the person that he loved, he at least wanted to hear her voice once a day, and not just from her voicemail.

Damian looked out into the moonlight night, the stars and the moon reflecting on the waves of the docks. Before, in Los Angeles, he would do the same thing sometimes. Go out on the pier that was a few miles from his home and just sit there and watch the waves crash. It was something that brought him a great deal of relaxation and tranquility. The boy hoped that the waves would serve the same purpose in New York that they did in California, but, sadly they could not. It was because there was now so much baggage on his mind, especially in the past few days.

Everything was piling up on him, and he didn't ask for it. How was he supposed to balance everything that was happening around him? He had to deal with helping Dillon out, and Brook, and now Bobbie, and when the news came out, which it eventually would, he would have to deal with that fallout as well. None of those problems were easy to solve, and to make matters worse he had to deal with his own life, which seemed to be less and less easy to do. All he wanted was some breathing space, all he wanted was some time to actually collect his own thoughts and not be encumbered by the problems of other people, but he wouldn't get that from anyone, would he? No, as long as he was the person that he was supposed to be, the person that he truly was inside, people would come to him with their problems and look for his help. Damian would never be able to turn them away, because he cared about all those people. They were, in some way, a part of his family. Maybe not by blood, or marriage, but certainly by bond, and that was all that mattered.

The soft creaking sound of someone else on the docks caught his attention. Instantly, he thought that someone was coming to take him away, to keep him hostage as a chip against his father again. Spinning around as quickly as possible, he readied to protect himself, even if it meant going down, he wouldn't go down without a fight. His instincts proved to fail him, however, when he realized that it was not someone who would ever do him harm.

Jason looked at the boy strangely. Why did he spin around so quickly? Why did he look like he was going to try and fight? "You okay?"

Relaxing his body, yet still feeling the adrenaline that came from the idea, Damian nodded softly, "Sorry, I just heard someone on the docks and I thought… well, you know what I was thinking. You're getting soft, Uncle Jason, last I heard you knew how to make it so that nobody could hear you when you came up to them on the docks."

"I only do that when I feel that I have to," Jason replied, "Why would I feel threatened by you? Why would I even need to sneak around you?"

"Maybe dad has you watching me again, like he did before."

"Sonny wouldn't do that to you again, Damian," Jason said sternly. "He knows that you don't want to be treated like a child, he knows that you're old enough to know how to protect yourself, and he respects that. Right now, at least. But I can't say that something will change, if someone goes after you again, like Alcazar did, then yes, Sonny will do something, will find some way to protect you from getting hurt, but, right now, he doesn't seem to feel the need to do so."

"What are you doing out here anyway?" Damian knew that it was the quickest way back to the house, but Jason tended to stay in the shadows, keep to himself whenever possible. "Or is it one of those things that you can't tell me about…"

"I was going home."

"Don't let me keep you from going home, then," Damian walked over to the bench and sat down. Jason started to walk away, and then the boy realized something. "You know, Uncle Jason, I never understood how hard it would be to act like you… until now…"

Jason stopped walking and looked over his shoulder, "What are you talking about?" Jason truly hoped that it wasn't something involving his job as a hitman, because the last thing that both he and Sonny wanted was to know that the boy had been further traumatized by some action that he had to take, an action that the both of them would have been able to do without flinching.

"The way that you are," Damian began, "the way that you give yourself to people without thinking about yourself. You are the most selfless person in the world, and I respect that so much about you, but I never knew how much of a burden that it could be on you."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because, like I said, I finally understand what it's like to have so many people confiding in you that you don't feel like you have enough room to even deal with your own problems, and I'm scared…"

"Scared?"

"I'm scared that I'm going to fail someone that I care about. That I'm not going to be able to help the people that mean something to me, that I'll have to watch them as they sink further and further into a position where I can't help pull them back up. I just… how do you do it? How do you be the person that you are without driving yourself insane? How can you take in all the baggage that comes with helping these people and not crack?"

"I've had a lot of practice."

"But you never even complain about it. It's like you're some sort of super best friend. Everyone can come to you and you'll never turn them away. A life-size version of My Buddy."

"My Buddy?"

"Never mind." If there was one thing about Jason that Damian would always forget about, and regret when he remembered, it was that Jason was not aware of any of the pop culture stuff that he was aware of. Granted, he wasn't a pop culture aficionado in the least, but that didn't mean that he didn't know his way around the decades that he had been born in.

"I'm not sure I know what you're trying to ask me, Damian. I can't help you unless I know what I need to help you with."

"See? There you go again, throwing your help out into the open so that someone can clutch onto it. Why do you do it?"

"Because I care about you, and everyone else that I offer to help. I don't want to see the people that I care about get hurt. I don't know why that seems to be such a bad quality…"

"It isn't," Damian replied softly, "and, if I made it seem like it was, I'm sorry, but… I guess what I'm asking is… how do you find time to breathe with all the things that you're dealing with? Because, right now, I feel like I can barely get time with myself, time to think about my own problems, and, even when I try to do that, I end up thinking about someone else."

"You just need to roll with it."

"That's it? That's your great piece of advice? Roll with it?"

"What else can I tell you? What works for me might not work for you… I'm going to bet that it doesn't. We're two different people."

"You're just better at this than I am."

"Like I said, I've had a lot of practice, and, when you deal with problems that come from Carly, you learn how to find some way to just distance yourself from everything…"

Damian gave Jason a wary eye. The boy wanted to tell Jason, of all people, what was going on, but he realized that if he did that he would just be doing the same thing that he was complaining about other people doing, that he would be burdening Jason with his problems, problems that Jason shouldn't have dealt with. "Are you trying to make a joke?"

"Maybe…"

"If I wasn't in this mood, I'd probably laugh."

"Are you going to be all right?" Jason asked. He asked because he wanted to know, not because of Damian being Sonny's son, but because Jason knew that he would want to help the boy get through his problems.

"Yeah, I'll be fine." Damian watched as Jason left once more, and then again, he called out to him. "Uncle Jason… wait… if… if Dillon wants to talk with you, please, listen."

"What's that mean?"

"Just listen, please." He repeated, hoping that the message got across. And, in some small way, telling Jason that made it feel like some of the weight had been lifted from his shoulders, which was not a bad thing in the least.


	51. Confronting

Morgan Household-

Even though there was still a lot on his head, Dillon could feel a little better because of the fact that he knew he could depend on the people around him. At least some of them. There were still things that he kept from Georgie, which was not something that he wanted to admit, but it was something that he couldn't deny. Maybe it was true, maybe he could depend on Georgie for everything, in his heart, he believed it. He truly believed that no matter what the problem was, Georgie would find a way to help him get through his problems. But, that didn't mean that he would depend on her all the time. Dillon refused to be the type of person who placed so much weight on the people that he cared about. There were so very few of them, and, unlike the rest of his family, Dillon refused to be the type of person who would throw them all to the curb, would use them until there was nothing left inside of them, and then cast them aside like they didn't mean anything to him. Dillon wasn't that person. Quartermaine by birth, he may have shared the last name, only because his mother refused to let him keep his father's name, but he wasn't like them. That was why he enjoyed being around the people that he was around so much, that was why he cared about Jason so much, because Jason was so much like him that Dillon couldn't help but admire the fact that his cousin was such an individual. But, Dillon realized that there was only so much that Jason was willing to tolerate. It didn't matter that Dillon shared only the last name and the blood with his family, to Jason, that was more than enough. Emily had only one of those, and that was probably why Jason cared about her, the same with Michael, and to a lesser extent, Justus. Even Monica, on some level. But Dillon and the rest of them? Cast aside, like they didn't mean anything.

Dillon played around with the camera that they had gotten him for Christmas, both Jason and Courtney. He thought that, by getting him something that was so important to him, Jason accepted and understood him. Dillon had fooled himself into believing that Jason might have cared, because Dillon wanted Jason to care. But that wasn't the truth. Courtney was the one who cared, and Dillon appreciated that so much, but Courtney wasn't the person that Dillon felt that he needed to prove himself to. No, Courtney was not capable of being the type of person who would condemn a person so much with the smallest of blank stares. It was funny, because Dillon had managed to somehow show himself to be a person of great character to Sonny and, even on some level, Carly, which should have endeared him to Jason… but it didn't work that way.

"Hey…" Courtney walked in from across the hall and saw the boy on the couch, looking at his video camera. It made her very happy that she had gotten him something that he could cherish so much. Dillon had to give up a lot when he decided to move into the penthouse with her and Jason. There were still many items that Dillon had at the mansion that he didn't get. She didn't know why he kept them there, why he felt like he couldn't get them back, but she knew that it was not her place to ask, so she didn't.

"Oh, Courtney, hi," Dillon smiled, or at least forced one on his face. It was harder and harder to smile around them, to fake the fact that he might have felt like he was happy, that he could have felt welcome. Courtney never made him feel like he was outside of the loop, but she could only do so much. It was like he was a foster-child, and Courtney was the only one who actually accepted him for the part of the family that he should have been. Nice to know that there was one, but he wanted it to be more than one.

"How was school today?"

Dillon was silenced. He could have lied to her, said that it was fine. How would she know? When he was absent from school they never called the penthouse. They would always call the mansion. But, then he remembered what his best friend had told him, that Courtney felt that Dillon was important, that she cared about him. And he couldn't betray her, he couldn't lie to someone who welcomed him like that. "I… I didn't go to school today…"

"I saw you leave the house with your backpack, Dillon, I know you didn't just stay at home. Did you turn around? Were you feeling sick?"

"It's not that…"

"Then what is it?" Courtney asked, more concerned than angry, although it was impossible to deny that there was some anger inside of her because she felt betrayed, at least on some level. It would be kept internally, at least until she found the real reason why he was skipping out on school. She wanted to believe that it was a good reason. God help the boy if he ditched school to attend one of those movie festivals.

"I just couldn't go today, all right?" There was anger in his voice, as if he felt like he was being grilled for something that she didn't understand, and he hated it when he felt like he was being attacked. The first thing he always did when he felt that way was lash out at the person who was attacking him. Not exactly the best thing to do, but that was the Quartermaine in him coming out.

"No, Dillon, it isn't all right!" Courtney replied, no longer able to curb her own anger. "I just want you to tell me what happened, why you skipped school. You're never going to get into film school if you ditch school like this. Stuff like that can screw your chances of getting into college up…"

"You just can't wait to get rid of me, can you?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Don't think I don't understand what you're trying to tell me, Courtney. You want me to go to school so that I can get into a good college, far away from here, and finally get out of your hair, don't you?"

"Why would you think that?"

"Is it true?"

Courtney looked at Dillon and saw the look in his eyes, a mix of anger and fear as well as hurt. He felt like she wanted him gone. Any of the anger inside of her was quickly transferred into sympathy as she realized what he must have been going through. "Dillon… that isn't true."

"And I'm just supposed to believe that?" Dillon asked, not buying it for one second. He'd been lied to by so many people, and Courtney may have looked like a person who wouldn't lie, she may have even told people that she hated lying, but it didn't mean that he truly believed it.

"Why wouldn't you? Dillon, I don't know what's going on inside of your head, but I want to help you. I want to help you feel like you belong here, that you're not just being tolerated…"

"You can't…"

"Why can't I?"

"Because Dillon isn't upset at you, Courtney," Jason replied as he walked through the door.

Courtney looked over her shoulder, "Jason?" She then looked at Dillon, who could only turn his eyes away from both of them. "Would someone please tell me what the hell is going on?"

"I'll tell you later, Courtney," Jason said as he walked into the house, throwing his jacket on the desk. "Right now I think I need to have a conversation with my cousin, alone."

"Jason…" Courtney didn't like the idea of them being alone together, especially with Dillon acting as erratically as he was.

"Courtney, everything is going to be all right, I promise," Jason knew that he would find a way to make that promise come true, which was why he said it. "Just let the two of us talk… please."

Courtney didn't want to go, but if there was one thing she knew about Jason it was that when he asked to be alone he almost always had a good reason for it. Who was she to deny him the desire to talk with someone without anyone else, in his own house? "I'll be upstairs… and don't worry, I won't try and listen in."

Jason waited for Courtney to be alone and he stared at Dillon, who was looking as far away from Jason as possible. "You got something you want to say to me? If you do, you need to say it right now."

Outside the Scorpio Household-

Georgie didn't know what it as, but she still didn't feel particularly comfortable with the way that Dillon was when he talked to her. There was so much that he seemed to be hiding, even though he said that he wasn't holding anything. Maybe it was because he was spending so much time around Jason and Sonny. Maybe they were teaching him how to be the person that they were. Maybe they were crushing Dillon's dreams the same way that Tracy and the rest of the Quartermaine's threatened to go for his whole life. Georgie didn't know how she was going to help him get through that, especially if he didn't let her help him. All she wanted to do was help him get through his problems.

"Georgie?"

The girl turned around, the focus on her boyfriend making her think, only for a moment, that it could have been Dillon who was coming back to be with her and tell her that he was sorry for making her feel the way that she felt. Sadly, that dream was nothing more than a dream, because the person that she saw was not Dillon, it was Damian. "What are you doing here?"

"I haven't talked to your sister all day… have you?"

"No, I haven't. But that still doesn't explain why you're here."

"I just want to see if she's home, I really need to talk with her, it's important."

"My dad isn't home, he wouldn't want you here…"

"That never stopped you from bringing Dillon to the house when Mac was gone, did it?"

"Don't talk to me like that…"

"Hey, I came here asking you a simple question, Georgie. I didn't try and take off your head, I asked if you had talked to your sister and you're the one who started giving me attitude. I don't know why you're upset at me, but I'm pretty sure that I didn't do anything to deserve it."

Georgie looked down at the ground, trying to understand what she had said, why she had said it. She was mad, yes, but was she mad at him? Maybe, in some small way. "Do you know what's wrong with Dillon?"

"Excuse me?"

"Dillon, my boyfriend, your best friend," Georgie pointed out. "I know what happened to Lois last night, Damian. I know how much it hurt Dillon, I know that he didn't even think for a minute that it would have such an impact on him, but it did. But that isn't the only thing that is wrong with him, I can sense it. I know when Dillon is having problems, and I know when he needs help. He won't let me help him, I don't know why, but I think that you might…"

"Why do you think that I might know what's going on with Dillon when you don't? You're his girlfriend, Georgie. He loves you, he trusts you more than he trusts anyone else in the world, he would go to you for help way before me…"

"The funny part is that you actually believe that."

"I don't think it's funny. I think it's the truth. I think that he cares about you enough to tell you anything…"

"Answer the question."

"It isn't my question to answer," he replied simply. "You want to find out what's going on with your boyfriend, I suggest that you ask Dillon yourself."

"But you know, don't you?"

"I have an idea of what is going on with him, yes…"

"See, that's what I'm talking about. He thinks that he should talk to you before he talks to me… and I don't like that."

"I'm not going to turn Dillon away when he comes to me with a problem just to appease your wounded pride, Georgie. He's my best friend, I wouldn't be a good person if I did that. You're my friend, too. You might not think that right now, but I do, and I want to help you."

"He listens to you… I think it's because of the fact that you're his friend, not his girlfriend, and that you're a guy, and you're older… please… I've told him that I love him, that he can trust me, depend on me… but I don't know if he's listening to me…"

"I'll do what I can…"

"If I let you inside my house to see if my sister is home, right?"

"No, Georgie, but I would appreciate it if you did let me inside."

Georgie opened the door, and they both walked in, Georgie walking in front of Damian as they headed up the stairs towards Maxie's room. There was music on inside, which made them both assume that she was in there. But, when Georgie opened the door, she gasped.

Damian peered in through the door and saw her… saw them… together… under the sheets… the faintest glimpse of her naked body, and of his. And he knew… knew what was going on. He tried to say her name, he tried to find some reason why it was a lie, why he wouldn't believe it… but he couldn't.


	52. Stuck With Conflict

Queen of the Elven City- You need not worry about never reviewing. I love reviews, I really do, but if people don't want to review my stories then I have to respect that. I don't have to like it, but I respect it. That said, thank you for breaking your silence and reviewing. Though there are many reviews, you're only the second person to actually review the story, which makes me sad. You are absolutely correct on the Jason/Dillon scenes of goodness. They rarely, if ever, happen on the show, but each time I've gotten to see the two of them together I really do get all happy about it, because I think that they have a lot that they can do together. Sadly, while I and other fans may agree with this assessment, other people do not. As for your suggestion of having the two males in the hospital at the same time… well, they've been in the hospital before, together, at the same time, but, never hurt at the same time, and I don't foresee it happening. Don't worry, you'll get your angst fix as time goes on.

Samsonlove- Rest assured that Georgie has the urge to smack her sister because of her stupidity, but, smacking someone while they're naked, let alone next to a naked boy, just would not be logical. Yes, you're going to get your moment about Dillon and Jason, I thought I would be evil and have a chapter end on a double cliffhanger for once. As for your assumption about Brook and Damian… the possibility certainly is more available than before, but don't count your chickens just yet.

Story-

There was a moment when she looked into his eyes that she believed she was making a huge mistake, one that she would never be able to atone for again. In that moment, the touch of Robbie's naked body upon her own felt like it was the most repulsive thing that she could have ever felt, all the feelings that she had felt while they were busy with their casual fling were wrong. And that was what it was, because they didn't care about one another, all they wanted was a distraction, all she wanted was to feel like she wasn't so hurt by what she thought he had done to her. But when she looked into his eyes, she saw it: the shock and dismay, the feeling that he had been betrayed. For a moment, she wanted to try and explain, and then she remembered the way that she felt… and nothing changed. She still thought that she knew in her heart that he had done something to her that was completely unforgivable, that he had committed a sin that was so horrible he would never be able to make up for the mistake that he had made for as long as he lived. When Maxie remembered just how hurt she was by his actions, she turned towards Robbie and planted a big kiss on his lips, flashing the whiteness of the top of her breast for both Damian and Georgie to see, more Damian than Georgie.

"Maxie… what are you doing?" The question came from Georgie, who was completely dumbfounded. "Why are you naked, in bed, with someone…"

"Georgie, you're a smart girl, aren't you?" Maxie inquired, her cold blue eyes scanning over, passed her sister onto her now ex-boyfriend. "I realize that you're both virgins, but even the two of you must understand just what happened…" she moved the end of the sheet up to cover her body, no more free peeks for Damian. He'd seen it once, and that was all that he was going to see. "Besides, I didn't hear the two of you knock, what gives you the right to enter my room without permission my permission?"

"Maxie," Robbie, still elated from the feeling that he had gotten while they were having their casual romp, looked over at the two people that were standing in the doorway, "Why do we have an audience?"

"I don't know… why do we have an audience?" Maxie shrugged. "I know that my little sister lives here, and that she can come and go as she pleases, but him? I have no idea why he's here…"

"I…" Damian tried to explain himself, but he couldn't. It hurt too much. He couldn't think about the words to say, couldn't express them in a way that made sense. It was too hard on him, to see the two of them together, to see Maxie with another person, someone that wasn't him. To know that everything they had together meant absolutely nothing to her, that she would just throw it away without a care in the world.

"Speak up, Damian," Maxie began, her attitude as horrible as she could make it sound, which wasn't that hard to accomplish, given all the anger that she was feeling inside of her being. "I know you're much more articulate than this, what with going to medical school and everything."

"Maxie!" Georgie's tone was harsh and filled with anger and rage. "How could you do this? How could you do something like that to him? To your boyfriend… to someone that you…"

"Don't, Georgie," Damian placed a hand on her shoulder, his voice weak and filled with befuddlement. "It's not worth it…"

"I thought you said that the two of you were over," Robbie looked over at Maxie. "I thought that was the whole reason why you asked me to take you out, why you wanted to bring me here… to forget him…"

"I did." Deep inside of Maxie's being, she knew what she was doing was wrong. She knew that getting back at him in such a horrible way was just not going to solve anything, that it was only going to complicate matters even more than they already had been, but she couldn't help it. Maxie was the type of girl that lashed out completely irrationally whenever she had been hurt. It had happened before, it would probably happen again. And it was her own damned fault for thinking that there was some way that things would be different for her. That, in falling in love with someone like Damian, things would be better. That she wouldn't feel the pain that she had felt before. The pathetic little delusions of a child who was busy spinning around and planning her perfect wedding, all of those things had come crashing down on her.

"I should go," he couldn't just stand there and look at the two of them in bed, the way that the light from the hallway passed into her dark room, the way that it brought up her face. Even though he was hurt and angry, it didn't make the fact that she was one of the most beautiful people that he had ever seen any less factual. Maxie may have changed on the inside, and in changing that way he realized he could no longer be with her, but on the outside… she still looked wonderful, like an apple with a worm.

"Yeah, you should go. Why don't you go and look for comfort from Brook while you're at it?"

"What does Brook have to do with any of this?" Georgie wondered, trying to make sense of everything that had happened, and failing miserably. So much for her vaunted intelligence.

"Why don't you ask him?" Maxie countered. "I've got more important things to do right now… like cuddle."

Georgie shook her head, trying to look back and see if there was something that he could do. Maxie always listened to him, Maxie thought that he was one of the smartest people that she ever knew, and in a lot of ways he was. If he helped her get through whatever it was that she was going through then everything would be better, right? But, when she turned around to look for him and his help, she only saw the top of his head as he walked down the stairs, only heard the steps that he was taking as he headed for the door, and, as odd as it may have been to believe, she thought she could hear the remorse in each and every one of his steps.

His hand was shaking with a multitude of emotions, most of them centering around one: hurt. It wasn't even anger, he wasn't ready to feel all that angry at her, he was too busy trying to find some way to get through the feeling of his heart being torn out of his chest and stomped on while it was still beating, like seen in some of the more violent cartoons of the past. It would have been easier if he could hate her for what she did, but he knew that he couldn't. He couldn't ever hate someone who had touched his life as much as Maxie had… she was simply too important to him, but, based on what she had done, he wasn't sure if he would ever be able to forgive her for the actions that she took.

"Damian, wait!" Georgie came piling down the stairs after him, grabbing his wrist before he could leave. "You need to talk with her!"

"I can't, Georgie…"

"What do you mean? Of course you can, just go back upstairs and tell her that you're hurt, she'll understand…"

"She doesn't care!" He said, finally letting the pain out of his being and into his voice. "You saw her up there… she didn't have any remorse for what she did, she didn't even care that I saw her with another person, another man, in her bed… I don't know what happened, but whatever did happen was enough to make her want to cheat on me… and it was so fast…"

"You don't have any idea?"

"If I did, do you really think that I would be standing here, on the verge of breaking down, and talking to you? If I thought I could salvage my relationship in some way, don't you think I would be doing everything in my power to make sure that it happened? I still love your sister, Georgie! I know how stupid that sounds, given what I just saw… but I can't turn something like that off."

"Then maybe you should try and fight for her…"

"Love isn't always enough," he said softly. "If I thought that I could, I would… but even if she wants to get back together with me, even if we found a way to work through this, I wouldn't take her back, because she betrayed me, she did something without even thinking about the consequences. I want someone who can love me, who can trust me… and Maxie can't do that anymore. I should go…"

"I'm so sorry."

"So am I…"

Georgie watched him leave, and she felt her heart sink when she heard the door shut. It was funny, because not ten minutes before she was busy yelling at him for something that he didn't really have any control over, and now all she felt was pity for him, and anger at her sister.

Morgan Household-

There was one thing that made Jason Morgan who he was: the ability that he had to wait things out. Jason had a patience rating that was higher than most people would think humanly possible, and, indeed, even Jason wondered why he was able to tolerate so much, but he never once frowned upon his gifts. Instead, he embraced them. However, there were times when he really just wanted to get whatever it was that was bugging him out into the open, and such an instance was happening with Dillon. "Dillon, I'm going to ask you again… is there something you want to say?"

"Why would you think that?"

"Damian talked to me."

"Damian shouldn't have said anything about my issues, Jason. He had no right to do that."

"He didn't tell me anything, Dillon. He only said that if you ever wanted to talk to me about something that I should take the time and listen to you. I don't know what you would want to talk about…"

"Of course you don't."

"See?" Jason asked. "It's obvious that you have something to say. I want to hear it. Are you upset at me for some reason?"

Dillon was silent. He felt the knife twisted in his back. Even though he knew that the boy had the best intentions, Damian had no right to go behind his back and say things to Jason about the problems that Dillon was having.

"Dillon, come on…"

"Do… do you want me here?" Dillon asked, finally just letting it out, no longer afraid of what could happen. If Jason knew that there was something bothering him, then there was really nothing that Dillon could do to hide it.

"I'm not sure I understand what you're asking me."

"It isn't a very complicated question, Jason. Do you want me living here with you?"

"Courtney…"

"No, I'm not talking about what Courtney wants. I know that she wants me here, and I'll never be able to repay her for the kindness that she's given me over the past few months, but there's only so much that I can tolerate… and I can't deal with the fact that you always look at me like I'm sort of cist on your back that you can never get rid of."

"Why would you think that?"

"Why wouldn't I?" Dillon could not believe that Jason, who was supposedly so vaunted for his ability to be empathic, even when he didn't appear to have any emotions at all, was so blind towards his problems. "You've never treated me like I was really more than just a tolerated nuisance in this house. I thought about it, I thought that I could get through it, that it wasn't going to cause me that much pain, but in the end I realized that it would eventually get to me, that I couldn't put up with it forever. I just… I want to feel like I'm accepted by you, not tolerated, but accepted."

"What do you want me to say?"

"The truth."

Jason nodded. "I don't really know what to tell you, Dillon. I don't know how I can express what I feel about you…"

"You don't know how, or you just won't?"

"I want you to stay, I just don't know why."

Dillon was stunned by the statement. "You… you're not just saying that, are you?"

"I never 'just say something.' I always mean it. Dillon, you're family, you've always been family. Even when I barely knew you, I still tried to keep you away from things that I knew would get you into trouble. I tried to keep you away from Alcazar, even though it didn't really work at first. I tried to direct you…"

"I know…"

"And I was doing it because I didn't want to see you destroyed, the same way that our brothers were. It just… it was hard for me to accept you being right here, all the time. It's hard for me to let anyone inside, Dillon, even the people that I trust or care about. Ask Courtney. I give everyone the same look because I'm afraid that if I let them in then when something happens to me they'll be hurt. I don't want to hurt anyone. And I'm sorry that I hurt you without even realizing it."

"I'm sorry that I put you on the spot like that…"

"Don't worry about it, and don't ever feel like you're not here because I want you to be. You are. I might not understand or accept everything you do, but at least with you around things are hardly ever boring…" and then it happened, a rarity in life: Jason smiled.


	53. Everything Or Nothing

Note: Max may be dead in the real continuity of the show, and I grieve for my precious, beloved Max, but here he lives on. Max shall never die!

Queen of the Elven City- It was not my intention to guilt you into reviewing, although I'll take what I can get, but, if you don't honestly 'feel' like it, don't. I won't hold it against you. Yes, plenty of angst. I can't do a story without angst. It just seems wrong. There's been a lot less comedy in this one, which is rather sad for me, because, as much as I love angst, I also love to keep people from feeling it too much by having lighthearted, funny moments. I've got some in store, but yeah…

Story-

Port Charles Hotel-

Lois had to admit that while it was great to have everything that she could have ever wanted so close, with only a simple phone call to fulfill her deepest desires, she still felt something deep inside of her that could not be filled by any items that she may have gotten, no matter how lovely they were. She wanted to be able to forgive him for what he had done. She wanted to be able to say that it was just because he was angry that he said the things that he said, but she couldn't. Lois couldn't just push aside the things that Ned said to her because they stung so much, they cut her to the most vulnerable part of her being, and in doing so, it left a lasting scar that she would never be able to fully heal. It wasn't even the fact that he caused her to get so angry that she ended up crashing her car that she was upset. Yes, she was mad about that, but she truly couldn't blame that aspect on Ned. That was her own fault for being so irresponsible. It could have been much worse. She could have killed someone, or herself. As far as she was concerned a bump on the head was her making out like a bandit.

She has spent most of the day in her bed, flipping through the channels on the television, hoping that there would be something that she could watch that would make her feel a little better, or at the very least get her mind off of what was going on around her. It wasn't very successful, sadly. After the much anticipated long bath that she took, which only added to her frustrations because she only thought about the events that had happened the night before rather than focusing on the relaxing aspect, she found herself in a state of complete docility.

The phone on the counter rang and she reached over to pick it up, resting her head on the pillow of her bed. "Yes?"

"Miss Cerullo?" Max's voice came through on the other line. Sonny had instructed Max to watch over Lois for a few days, entrusting the safety of his best friend only with the bodyguard that he trusted the most. She was glad, because, while she didn't know Max very well, he seemed to be one of the more approachable people that Sonny had employed. He was even funny, a rarity. Sonny was pretty funny himself, although he would rarely let anyone see the comedic side of himself. Sonny was afraid to open up, to show the sides of him that weren't all about being gruff and tough. That was partly because of the way that he was raised. She couldn't fault him for wanting to protect himself, to stand up to people who would hurt him, like his step-father.

"Is something wrong, Max?" Lois asked, wondering why he would call.

"Your daughter is here to see you. Would you like me to send her in?"

"Of course… why would you think that I would deny my daughter the chance of seeing me?"

"I'm sorry… but I'm just doing what Sonny wanted me to do. He said to call you and make sure that you wanted to see whoever it was that came to see you."

"Max, for future occurrences, you never have to ask me if I want to see my daughter. She's the most important thing in the world to me, I would never want to push her away, not even for a second."

"All right, Miss Cerullo."

"And call me Lois."

"I will," Max said with a light snicker. Sometimes it was odd to think about the way that they were connected with one another. Max had always figured that he would be subservient to everyone, that he wouldn't be treated like an equal in some ways, but he was, and that was what kept him going.

Lois propped herself up, checking her face in the mirror to make sure that there was nothing that would give Brook the slightest hint that she had spent most of the day fighting back the tears that were threatening to pour out of her eyes. The whole time she couldn't help but wonder what had happened to the two of them, why she and Ned had changed from the people that they were when they were in love, and they were very much in love before. When the door opened and she saw her daughter, Lois instantly popped up from the bed and hugged her daughter tightly, "I don't think I've ever loved you as much as I do right now since the moment I gave birth to you…"

The analogy would have made Brook Lynn run away, but she remembered just how much she hated the idea of being without her mother, and that made everything and anything that Lois said, no matter how odd, completely tolerable. She would never think her mother to be some sort of strange person that nobody could hope to understand, because now she did understand. Brook understood what Lois meant to her, and that was all that mattered. "Ma…"

Lois pulled away, "Don't say my name with that sadness in your voice, Brook Lynn Ashton! You listen to me and you listen well, what happened was horrible, and I hope to God that neither of us ever has to go through that kind of pain again, but nothing bad happened to me, I'm fine, and I'm going to be fine. So stop looking at me and talking to me like you still think that I can just keel over and die any second. It isn't going to happen…"

Brook nodded, "I was so afraid."

"I know, baby," Lois replied as she hugged her daughter again. "But you had people around you that helped you get through the pain that you were going through. People who you will forever be indebted to for what they did."

"Yeah, I know."

"Not that I don't appreciate the visit, Brookie, but why are you here? It's pretty late, why aren't you at the mansion with the Q's?"

"I just wanted to see you while you were here… and I wanted to know why you came."

"Didn't you talk with your father?" Lois asked. Ned would never say the things that he said to Lois, or at least repeat them to their daughter. Ned knew that it would put a strain on the relationship that Brook and he had, and Ned wasn't a fool, he wasn't going to take the chance of risking something that was just blossoming into a beautiful relationship, one that every father, even Ned, had a right to have with his daughter.

"Dad just said that you were staying over here at the hotel, that Sonny was going to pay the bill while you were staying here. He never said why you were staying here, even though I asked him. He just changed the subject to asking how I was doing with everything that had happened."

"Somehow I doubt that Ned simply said that Sonny was going to pay the bill." She could just imagine the colorful language that Ned used when describing Sonny. The two of them had never liked each other, not that she didn't understand why they hated each other so much. It rather mirrored the relationship that she had with Carly, although Ned was no fonder of Carly than she was, and vice versa.

"You're right, he was a bit more… cutting with his words. But you know as well as I do that dad really doesn't like Sonny, and never will. We do, so we just have to block out everything that he says that is horrible about Sonny…"

"Sonny is paying for this room, he's paying for me to stay here because he wants me to recover from everything that happened yesterday in peace. Let's face it, the Quartermaine's… well, peace and quiet in the mansion is not something that ever has or ever will be understood in that place."

"We can… we can just leave… go back to Brooklyn, go back to our family…"

"Brookie, these people are your family, too."

"Yeah, but you're more important than them!"

"Baby, I love the fact that you've decided to tell me that, really, inside, I'm dying from pride, or maybe it's just the medication, but you know that we can't just leave again. Your father would be destroyed, and I don't want that."

"Dad can always come and see me whenever he wants."

"How well did that work out in the past? I mean, you saw Jax more than you saw your father… and I know that you want to be with him, Brook. I know that the one thing you want the most is the chance to have a real relationship with your father. I can't take that away from either of you, I can't take the chance that you two have. That would be horribly selfish of me."

"But…"

"This isn't something that we're going to discuss. You're actually here, you live here now. Port Charles is home. You go to school here, you have friends, you have Dillon and Georgie, people who will be able to help you no matter what happens. And there's more… do you really think that you would be able to throw away the friendship that you have with him?"

"For you… yeah, I would."

"That's sweet, Brook, but you know it's a lie. Face it girl, you're smitten. And if there's one thing that I know, when a girl is smitten by a Corinthos man, it's really quite hard to pull away. I've seen it a few times in my life, always the same thing. Everything's going to be all right, Brook. I promise."

Brook sighed and looked out the window. She wanted to believe her mother, she wanted to believe that Lois knew what she was talking about, that Lois had some sort of plan that would make everything all right, but somehow Brook understood that the possibility of Lois truly being able to do something like that was slim to none. Brook was well passed the point in her life where she thought anything that her parents said was true.

Scorpio Household-

Georgie waited until she heard the car that Robbie was driving leave the driveway. Maxie may have been stupid, but she certainly wasn't going to be suicidal and let the boy stay around when Mac came home. Even though it was a school night, Georgie didn't care how long it took for her to get it through Maxie's thick skull that she had screwed up one of the best things in her life.

When she heard Maxie walking up the stairs again after letting the boy leave, she quickly rushed out of her room and stood in front of Maxie's door. The stern look on her face was the first thing that her older sister saw when she came up the door.

"Georgie, go away."

"I'm not leaving you alone right now, not after what you did."

"And what exactly did I do?"

"You just had sex with another boy, in your room, when your boyfriend walked in on you…"

"He's not my boyfriend anymore!" Maxie yelled. "I don't know why I ever thought he was."

"Why would you say something like that, Maxie? You know how much he loves you. You saw how hurt he was. How can you hurt someone like that so much and not feel anything?"

"Because he hurt me, too! And he didn't care. He just went behind my back and started having some sort of affair with Brook and he kept on telling me, to my face, that nothing was going on. He lied to me, Georgie. Someone who should never lie to me did, and you think I can just accept that?"

"How do you know he's having an affair with Brook?" Georgie was fully aware of the fact that Brook had her eye on Damian, and had since they met, but there was a huge difference between one person wanting the other and the two of them giving into their desires.

"I saw them yesterday…"

"Yesterday?"

"At the hospital, in the chapel. I was doing something and I walked by the chapel. I don't know why I looked inside, but I did, and when I looked inside I saw the two of them hugging. And it wasn't any sort of friendly hug. He was holding her as tight as he could… now you ask me again why I did what I did…"

Georgie shook her head. "You're an idiot, Maxie! I can't believe that you would let something as simple as a hug send you over the edge like that! I thought you were better than that. I thought you knew more."

"You didn't see it…"

"Lois was in an accident last night, Maxie," Georgie pointed out. "Maybe you didn't know that, but she was. And when Brook Lynn needed someone to be there for her, Damian was there. He was holding her because she thought that there was a chance that she could have lost her mother. Now I realize that if the same thing happened with us you would be dancing around in celebration, but Brook and Lois are close and if you know anything at all about being a friend, you would know that when someone that you care about is in that kind of pain you just want to hold them and try and help them through it. That was it… but no, not Maxie Jones. She has to think that there's some sort of conspiracy theory going on. I hope you're happy with what you lost… because, if you act like that, you don't deserve to be happy." Seething with rage, Georgie walked back into her room and slammed the door shut, leaving Maxie alone to ponder the consequences of her actions, and how foolish she truly may have been.


	54. Tender Loving Care

Queen of the Elven City- Plots, dear girl, not just a singular plot, but many plots, woven into the overall thread of the story. I think if I decided to go with just 'one' plot it would be a much shorter story, and probably a lot less interesting. Glad you continue to enjoy.

Samsonlove- I can count two moments where Dillon and Jason have intermingled on the show. Once, when Jason went to the mansion to help Emily prepare for Nikolas's 'funeral,' and the other time after Sage had died and Dillon wanted to see about getting protection from Lorenzo. There might have been another moment or two, I think Dillon might have been warned about Lorenzo when he was working for him by Jason, but I can't really remember all that much. Rest assured, my love of the potential between the two of them is what makes me write the scenes that I wish the writers would write themselves. As far as Brook and Lois being like Rory and Lorelai… I don't think so, because the connection between Rory and Lorelai is really strong, or at least it was before the end of last season, whereas Brook and Lois have a strong relationship, but it also has moments where it is very strained.

Corinthos Household, Morning-

There were times when he just wanted the world to stop spinning. Times when he wanted nothing more than to just sit there and be silent for a little while, let everything that was happening around him sink in. And then there were times when he knew that if he took the time to actually think about his life he would probably drive himself insane. For Damian, it was not certain which time he was going through. He wanted to have the everything stop itself, but at the same time he wanted to have something worth going on for… but what would that something be? He'd lost the one thing that he cherished the most, the one thing that he loved even more than being around his father and the rest of his family, he'd lost the person who he thought he had a shot at making a life with. Yes, it was a little premature to think that he would ever have anything serious come from his relationship with Maxie, but, in time, he did see himself with her for the rest of his life. He knew it as soon as he said that he loved her, he knew that he would always stay true to those words… and he was staying true to them, even at that moment. But, the same couldn't be said for her apparently. Maxie may have thought herself to be someone who was pure and righteous, but it wasn't true. She had given in to some sort of primal need for something… something that he wasn't willing to give.

That was something that Damian had thought about, something that he had pondered. Was it his fault? Was his inability, his unwillingness to have sex what pushed her into the arms of another man, one who would give her what she wanted without the emotional attachment? They had spoken about it many times in the past, many times in their relationship. He never wanted to have sex with anyone until he was married, didn't want to give up on the vows of celibacy that he had taken himself when he was young and still believed in the good grace of God. His religious convictions may have been destroyed over time, but some of the things that he learned still remained, some of them had become so ingrained in his being that they weren't just things about the religion, they were aspects of his personality. The question that he wanted answered was simple, at least he thought it was: if the reason that she did go and have a fling with the guy, whoever the guy was, if it was because of him and his choices, did he really have any right to blame her for her actions? Should not the blame have been placed on his shoulders for refusing to give her something that she wanted? Something that she should have gotten without really needing it. Damian understood why it meant something to her, he truly did. For both of them, sex was like the last gift that they could give each other, that final moment where they pledged something that would forever be theirs and theirs alone… but he wasn't ready for it yet. No matter how many other people were doing it, no matter how much the media hyped it up, he wasn't going to allow anyone to make him do something that he felt uncomfortable with. He was born out of a relationship that was forced. The motives would have been different, but Damian knew more than most people what it meant to be that type of person, the type of person who wasn't born out of a truly blessed decision.

Although he had been attempting to sleep for most of the night, the events of hours before kept him up until the wee hours of the morning, and, even when the sandman did at last claim him, his dreams were still filled with the horrific images that would forever be engraved in his mind. In his dreams he dreamt of the same moments that had happened before, and, when he saw the way that she looked at him, with eyes that were completely unapologetic, with eyes that seemed to scream at him that it was what she wanted, he tore himself out of the bed and looked over at the clock that was on the counter. It was still early in the morning. Seven-thirty. The fatigue of sleep had yet to be stripped from his person, and he doubted it would come any time soon. If it wasn't for his training and the fact that he had dealt with many similar situations before, he probably would have been much worse off than he was, but, while feeling some mild discomfort due to his anything but restful sleep, he could function… at least in that aspect. It was going to be something else to see how he would manage to face the world after losing something that was so important to him.

He'd been through the feeling before, when his mother died. He would never forget the way that he acted after that particular event had happened. The way that he refused to do just about anything, the way that he would only come down to eat about once a day and the rest of the time he would just be in his room, fighting back tears at times or just letting them crash out of his system and onto his bed or his floor or wherever it was that he happened to be at that particular moment. It would have been easier if she were gone. He knew how horrid it was to even think that, but he couldn't help it. Damian did not wish Maxie dead, and never would, no matter how much it hurt, but he had dealt with the death of someone that he cared about so much before, and he knew how to get himself through it. He was stronger now, he would be able to cope easier, or so he told himself. But to deal with something like betrayal, something that he had never felt before? He didn't have any sort of training for that, he didn't have any sort of clue as to what he was supposed to do, how he was supposed to react. Damian didn't even know if he could do anything.

The warmth of the bed reminded him of that moment they spent together at the hotel in New York City, the night before he took a step that he had never thought he would take. He may have woken up being haunted by the decisions that he had made in his past, but before that, when they were in the bed together, when he felt the warmth of her body under the sheets, the way that they rubbed up against each other… the one thing that he would always remember about that night was how right it felt, just like when they kissed after they told each other how much they cared for one another. That overwhelming feeling that seemed to tell him that there was nothing wrong with what he was doing, where it was exactly what he was supposed to be doing, like he was being led by the hands of destiny itself.

He lingered under his sheets, the security of the black silken cloth fighting against the cold of the world that was right outside the bed. A losing battle, to be certain, but a battle that he was glad something was fighting. Damian scooted backwards and then placed his head on the headboard of the bed. Small strands of his hair, mangled from a night of tossing and turning in the bed, fell forth into his face.

The door to his room was slightly pushed open. He would have yelled for the person to stay away, but he didn't have the energy to do it. Damian wasn't even sure that he would be able to talk to whomever it was that was on the other side. And then he saw just who the person was, the boy's red hair reflecting softly in the pale light of the hallway. He was dressed in his school uniform. "Damian?"

"Michael… what are you doing here?" That could have come off as more intrusive than it should have. He still loved the boy, and had no quarrel with him. In fact, seeing such a bright and happy face made Damian see things just a little less bleak, something that Michael wouldn't understand.

"Did… did I wake you up?" Michael found it odd that his older brother was still in bed. Damian was almost always up before he was, very much like his father in that respect, although is big brother tended to dress in clothing that was a little less strange than Sonny did.

"No, you're fine."

"Are you all right? Are you feeling sick? Do you want me to get Leticia? I know she's supposed to just be me and Morgan's nanny, but she can do a lot of other things, too! Once, when I had a stomach ache, she made me something to drink, and even though it tasted really yucky I felt better once I drank it."

"Baking soda and water?"

"How'd you know?"

The young man smiled. That was the joy of Michael Corinthos, just the way that he would say things that would make a person smile, because of the way that he said them, the youthful tone that lifted even the most somber of spirits. "Leticia's a lot like me. We grew up in families that were very similar, and, when people get stomach aches, they usually drink baking soda and water."

"I don't like it!"

"Nobody does, but it helps, right?"

Michael nodded, but his queries would not end with such a short conversation. "So, if you're not sick, if you don't have a tummy ache, why are you still in bed? Don't you know that it's almost eight in the morning? I have to be at school soon."

"I don't sign in for my shift until noon… I can afford a little time to sleep in if I want it."

"I wish I could sleep in…"

"But you like school."

"Yeah, but I like sleep more. I can't wait until I'm a college student like you are, then I can pick when I want to be in class and I can sleep until whatever time I want! It's going to be great!"

"Don't grow up too fast, Michael."

"But I want to be older already," the boy replied with a slight pout. "I'm sure to a baby like Morgan being nine years old seems so old, but when I look at people like you and daddy and mommy… I want to be your age. I want to know the things that you know."

"Trust me, kid… you don't want to know everything that goes on in the adult world. Take what you have and go with it, because when it's gone you're going to regret it, especially when you know that you can never get it back again." Michael was immune to the pain of heartache, at least the type of heartache that Damian was going through at that particular moment. He would be crushed if something happened to his family, but that was different. Even Damian knew it was different. The way that he felt when Ana-Maria passed away and the way he felt at that moment were similar, but they had a lot of differences as well.

"You're going to be gone for awhile, aren't you?"

"Yeah, I have to do my internship with the hospital today… but you know that you can always visit me when you want to. You might need to wait a little while to see me, because I could be doing something, but if you need me, I'll come."

"I hate the fact that you're gone so much."

"I don't like it either, but I need to do it, Michael, you know that. You know how important doctors are. You know that people like you and I need doctors so that when we get hurt they can make us better. Without doctors what would happen? When Morgan got sick… nobody would have been there to make him feel better…"

"Or when you got in that accident…" it was still painful for Michael to think about that particular moment. When he thought of horrible things, the first thing that flashed into his mind, the first still of life, was the moment when he saw his brother get hit by a car, pushing him out of the way so that he wouldn't get hurt.

"I thought you were mad at me…"

"I was," Michael admitted. "And I still hate the way that everyone around me thinks that I can't understand things, that I'm too young to really get what is going on, because it isn't true. I might not know everything… but I like to feel like people aren't hiding things from me."

"You are our father's son." Damian finally pushed himself out of bed, the sound of the sheets moving with his body creating a noticeable sound alongside him. When he stood, his sweats dropped down, hanging over his heels only slightly. "Michael, I know that sometimes you don't understand what people do, trust me, that's not something that goes away once you get older… but you have to understand that sometimes… sometimes the people who do the things that you don't understand do them because they care about you, because they think it is the best thing to do."

"But shouldn't they ask?"

"Ideally, yeah… but there are times when people can't ask. Like, if you're asleep and we don't want to wake you up because we know how much you love to sleep…"

"That's not the same."

"No, you're right, it isn't… but it's the best that I've got right now, and that's all you're going to get." Damian smiled and leaned against the desk. "You'd better go, if you're late your teacher is going to get mad at you."

Michael walked over and hugged his older brother, arms wrapped around Damian's waist because of the height difference. "Whatever is bothering you, I know you're going to find a way to get over it, because you always do…"

Damian watched Michael go out of the room and heard the door slam. He lowered his head a moment later, "Don't ever change, Michael." But he knew that would not happen, knew that there would eventually be a moment where it had to change, something had to change inside of him. The frail innocence that was inside of Michael seemed all the more tender, and all the more important at that particular time.

The phone was on the counter as well, on vibrate as well as ring. The sound of the vibrating phone hitting the wooden counter pulled him away from his thoughts, and then he looked over to see who was calling. It was Maxie. He fought the urge to pick it up… fought it as hard as he could, and he just continued to let it ring.

On the other end of the line, Maxie waited in her own bedroom, having been up much like him throughout the night. "Come on, pick up… please pick up." But her pleas would remain unanswered. The only thing she got was the voice message machine. Most of the time she didn't leave any message, but there were many factors that needed to be taken into account, and she couldn't just leave with only an unanswered call. "Damian… it's me. We really, really need to talk about what happened last night, and about what happened before that. Please call me back as soon as you get this message, I know that you still use this phone… even Sonny can't change the numbers that fast." That last claim may have been easily disputed, but she didn't care. All she wanted was to talk with him, to explain herself… to ask for forgiveness that she knew she had no right to request.


	55. Brother To Brother

Port Charles Hotel-

So distracted by his own problems was John Durant that he didn't even bother to notice that Sonny Corinthos's best friend had been checked into the same hotel, in a room that was relatively close to his own. No, the moment he found out that there was a chance that he could have had a daughter the hunt for information took precedence. And now, to find out that it was Carly Corinthos… John could not believe that his own daughter would be with someone that was so dangerous. Of course, John understood why she did it on some base level. In the years that he had been bringing down people like Sonny there was always, always a woman that was attached to the person, but she was little more than a figurehead. A beautiful young woman that was used simply to show that the person who was in charge could have whatever he wanted. Sometimes they would have children, like Carly and Sonny did, other times they wouldn't. But they were treated like nothing more than property, like a pet to be used whenever the person in question wanted it. John didn't want that for his daughter, and he didn't want his grandsons to be involved with such a horrible person.

The big question that had kept John up all night was how he was going to go about telling Carly about their connection to one another. How would he be able to make his daughter understand? How was he going to approach it? Would he just go up and say that he was her father? Why would she believe him? It didn't matter to John, not really. He needed Carly to know the truth.

One of the most fascinating things for John was the way that he was reacting. His whole life he had never had a child before, had never even wanted one, but now that he knew that he had one he wanted to become a part of her life… the problem was finding a way for Carly to accept him for who he was, which was probably going to be impossible given the fact that she was connected to Sonny.

It was at that moment that John realized that the easiest chance he had at finding a relationship with his daughter and his grandchildren was if he managed to take Sonny and Jason down. The only problem was that now he needed to act as quickly as possible. The longer he stayed the less likely he was to endear himself to anyone, especially his family. While he liked to play things by the book as much as possible, bending rules only when it was necessary, and frequently it was, John realized that there was something that needed to be done. He was going to need help, and he had a good idea as to who he was going to get help from.

The man walked out of his room and into the main room of the hotel suite, looking on the counter for his little black book, which did not have ex-girlfriends as most people would believe, but had contacts that he could use whenever he wanted. People owed John Durant favors, and he always understood that sometimes it was just as important to put a person away as it was to gain an ally, or at least someone that they could summon on retainer. John needed someone crafty, someone who could do what was necessary to do, someone who he could bully into doing the things he wanted done without much argument. And he had just the person. John opened the book, scanning for the name. The person wasn't easy to get in touch with for most people, but John wasn't most people, he was one of the most powerful attorneys in the country, the world even. He knew how to get what he wanted.

His aged hand picked up the phone and he dialed the number before he put the receiver to his ear. The phone rang a few times before someone picked up on the other end. "It's John… I need you to come to Port Charles New York as soon as possible. No, I don't care what else you've got on your plate, I need you here, and if you don't come then you know what I can do… yeah, I thought you would see it my way. Call me before you get into town so I can meet you."

The phone call ended and John placed the phone back, a smile on his face. When he was taking down some of the big guns, it only made sense to hire the best possible people that he had available to him. Now, though, it wasn't just business. No, it had become a matter that was far more personal than anything he could have ever thought of. He looked out the window, "Don't worry, Carly, I'm going to find a way to free you and your children from that man. I promise. Dad's going to find a way."

Lansing Home-

Ric sometimes enjoyed being alone in the house, but, now that he had Elizabeth back in his life it seemed more like a punishment than anything else. Usually, when he did have his time alone it was spent brooding about the many mistakes that he had made in his life, and it really was no different at that particular moment. As it tended to go, he was worrying about his relationship with Sonny. It was still on such thin ice that there was so much that could have gone wrong, just like there was so much that could have gone right. There could have been a time when the two of them would speak with one another like actual brothers. None of the taunting that went on between them. Usually, when they referred to one another as big brother and little brother it was to just dig a dagger into the other person's back. Ric didn't understand why they did it, but, in his defense, it was usually Sonny who ended up initiating the first round of their longstanding brawls.

He didn't have to be inside the office for a few hours, which gave him time to relax and gain his bearings. For once he wasn't thinking about the ways that he had failed Sonny, but rather how he was going to prove himself to Sonny, how he was going to help his brother do something that he wanted. Ric wanted Durant gone just as much as Sonny, if not more. Sonny had dealt with people like Durant before, Ric was on that list, as horrible as it was to admit. Ric, on the other hand, didn't have to worry about people threatening his position of power in Port Charles. And he didn't like it. Before, he was the assistant District Attorney to Scott Baldwin, but he did nothing to take Baldwin out of office until the end, until he found out just how corrupt Scott truly was. He would have been perfectly content with the position that Scott gave him, until Scott chose to threaten Ric's family, and when that happened there was no way that Ric was going to let the threats stand. He wasn't going to let someone destroy the future of one of his family members, he would not stand for it. Despite all the negativity that may have existed between him and his estranged maternal family, Ric knew that they were still family, they still shared blood. Besides, it wasn't just anyone who Scott was trying to bring down, it was Damian, the peacemaker.

There was a knock on Ric's door, which was surprising. He wasn't expecting anyone, and most people knew that Elizabeth was already at work, which meant that they wouldn't show up at his door looking for her, they would just look at Kelly's, which was where they usually looked anyway, given all of the time that she spent working there. The knocking continued as Ric walked over to the door and opened it up. "Sonny…"

"Can I come in?"

"Yeah, sure, of course." Ric held the door open for his big brother, who walked into the living room before Ric shut the door behind them. He thought about asking if Jason was also coming, but, since it was Ric, the odds of Jason being involved were slim to none. If there was one huge obstacle that Ric would need to overcome, it was Jason. Jason was more Sonny's brother than Ric had ever been, quite possibly more Sonny's brother than Ric could ever hope to be. As much as he hated to admit it, the truth was right there.

Ric watched as Sonny paced around his living room like some caged animal. Before it would have been pleasant to see Sonny squirm like that, but Ric was no longer that person, he wanted to help his family, not make them suffer. So, help was what he was going to offer, but he needed to know what was going on first. "To what do I owe the honor of this visit?"

"Your wife here?"

Ric shook his head, "Elizabeth already left for work, it's just the two of us. I don't see why you would care, though. Even if it was the two of us, I'm not expecting you to put any of the confidence into me that you put in some of the other people that are around you."

"Are we going to get into this right now?" Sonny asked. "I really don't want to get into yet another argument with you about something that doesn't really matter to me anymore. I need your help, Ric, you know that. You know that I asked you for help even though I don't really want to ask anyone for help, especially you."

"I feel special."

"Look, you're the one who was telling me how much you wanted to start up a relationship with me. I'm putting my trust in you, if you blow this I swear to God I will never be able to think of you as little more than my disowned little brother, no matter what my son tells me, no matter how hard he lobbies for me to give you another chance… that's it. If you botch this up, then it's over. You only get one shot with me."

"I'm aware of that."

"Good…"

"But I need to know why you're here regardless." Ric wanted to help Sonny, he really did. Not only because he wanted that relationship with his brother that had seemed forever denied to him, but because he could see that Sonny needed help, which was something that Sonny had never shown him before. It scared Ric on some level.

"I need to know if you've found any way of getting John Durant out of our hair…"

"It's not as easy as we want it to be, Sonny."

"So you're telling me that you haven't found anything that you can use against him?"

"Not yet… he hasn't even been pestering any of us lately. It seems like he's distracted by something else. I went through the whole day yesterday without seeing him one time. It was like a delayed Christmas present."

"He could just be planning something."

"I suppose, but you shouldn't think about things like that, Sonny. You need your 'A' game if you want to try and get through this unscathed. Even when I was at my worst, when I wanted to do everything within my power to take you down, I'm not even half the person that Durant can be. He's ruthless. He's good. He's better than me."

"Then you need to find some way to be better than him. Maybe Justus can…"

"Let me try and do this on my own before you send in Justus, all right?" Ric requested. He had nothing against Justus, well, he might have, but it was entirely… okay, so it wasn't professional so much as personal. Justus was the attorney that Sonny would always turn to, instead of him. Justus was Sonny's crux, and Ric was his brother. "I might not be able to show you anything, but that doesn't mean that I'm not looking."

"He's really good, isn't he?"

"He must be, if you're going to admit something like that. You usually don't admit anything about a person being good unless you're really nervous. And you hate being nervous."

"You going to take another potshot at me?"

"No, I'm not."

"Good…"

"You know, Sonny, no matter what we've been through in the past, I like to think that we have both changed in a lot of ways. Not just me, but you, too. You're able to look at me without having so much hate in your eyes, and I can do the same thing. I care about what happens to you, I care about your family… you can believe it if you want to, or you can just say that I'm saying those things to get in your good graces, but the only one of us who knows for sure one way or the other is me…"

"I believe you." Sonny said softly. "And, even though I wasn't at your wedding, even though I've never really said anything to you about it, I really do hope that you and Elizabeth are able to make this marriage work out. I can tell how much you've changed, Ric, even though sometimes I might not want to admit it because it means that I'm, at least in some way, forgiving you for the things that you've done to my family in the past, but it's true."

"Thank you, Sonny. That means a lot to me."

"Just don't expect a hug, all right?"

"I wouldn't dream of it."

"I just wanted to see how you were doing on your end, since you don't have anything, I guess I should go…" Sonny turned and started walking towards the door.

"Wait, Sonny," Ric called out to his brother, "You don't have to leave so soon if you don't want to. Would you like a cup of coffee?"

"Coffee?"

"Its Corinthos-Morgan brand coffee," Ric replied with a wry smile. Once upon a time he would have never fathomed having that particular brand of coffee in his house, but, as painful as it had been to admit it once upon a time, it was really good coffee, and one of the few things that his brother did that wasn't laced with some sort of sinister back story.

"And what would we do during this cup of coffee?"

"Talk about ways to bring John Durant down? Or, I could ask you how you managed to make your second marriage to Carly work. After all, you're my big brother, I'm supposed to look to you for advice, aren't I?"

Sonny snickered, "All right, Ric. Coffee sounds fine."

Ric nodded. "Thank you, Sonny." Sonny may not have realized just how much taking the invitation for coffee meant to Ric, but Ric understood it well. The bridge that was broken, the one that made it impossible to cross, was slowly mending, and while he tried to not let himself get too involved in the possibilities, he could see that things were slowly getting better, and he was thankful for that.


	56. Try Caring For Once

Samsonlove- Thank you for the compliment, but I found that the moment where Sonny and Ric hugged a few weeks ago was very, very impacting. I was so happy that they hugged. Of course, it was later made null in void because Sonny is a stubborn, stubborn bastard, but in that moment I felt all good. When Carly finds out the truth she's going to be very confused and she's going to feel betrayed by her family for keeping the knowledge from her. As for Damian forgiving Maxie… he could be like his father in that way, or it could be something that he'll forgive her quicker for. You never know, I don't even know. Well, I kind of do, but yeah.

Story-

Quartermaine Mansion, Exterior-

Why was he doing it? Why was he standing in front of the mansion again? True, he had been there more times than he would care to admit since he had moved out, but each and every time it was the same feeling that ran through his body: Dillon tended to end up looking for the nearest exit. Indeed, the teenager was feeling that type of energy, but, because of the fact that someone that he cared about very much was inside of the mansion, he knew that he would have to go inside, for her.

At first, he thought about knocking on the door, but then he remembered that Jason never did. Granted, Dillon didn't have the same kind of status as Jason did, Dillon was never considered the Golden Boy, or the Quartermaine's worst loss. No, there were many times when Dillon believed himself to be considered their worst mistake. Unfair, yes, but nonetheless true. But, he wasn't going to let himself be treated like a second class citizen in the world of the rich and powerful anymore. He was going inside to see how Brook was doing, and if she was going to school, and nothing was going to stop him. Right? He placed his hand on the knob of the door and wondered for another second. Right!

Opening the door, he looked into the sitting room, the place where he had been many times. He saw the chair that he often found himself sitting in and trying to look like he wanted to be there. It was a task that he failed miserably at many times in the past, and, if he were to do it again, he was almost certain that once more a failure would amass from the attempt. Dillon looked over towards the bookcase, seeing all the trinkets that had been acquired throughout the years, and the pictures. Lila's picture.

The smell of food was easy to detect, with the buffet that almost always accompanied the morning to his right. He wasn't very hungry, although he did miss the food that cook could prepare. Courtney, bless her soul, was good at many things, but cooking wasn't really one of them. Sadly, she had not inherited that particular skill from either her father or her half-brother. Dillon had tasted only a few things that Sonny had prepared, but there was something special about them… they were like a small slice of heaven.

"Alice, is that you?" Tracy's voice was heard as she headed towards the room. "I thought I told you that I didn't want you coming back in until everything outside was taken care of, and I know that you might be an Amazon, but you certainly aren't able to work that…" Tracy walked into the room and saw her son, who seemed to be backing away towards the door. "Dillon?"

"This is all just a dream, a dream," Dillon started to move his fingers and make eerie sounds in order to persuade Tracy into believing that he was telling the truth, that he wasn't there, that it was all in her head. The last thing he wanted to do was deal with his mother. "You'll wake up, alone, like always, and you won't remember a thing…"

"Don't be silly, darling, I happen to have a very good grasp on reality."

"Maybe your own twisted sense of it," Dillon dryly countered. Tracy may have been his mother, but he wasn't going to stand there and take her unique brand of abuse anymore, the kind of abuse that didn't seem all that horrible to other people, but to him, and to the people around him who suffered because of her ways, it was a horrible fate to be assigned to.

"Despite your comments, I'm still going to let you move back into the mansion, because it's your home." Tracy grabbed his hand gently. "That's why you came back, right? You finally realized that your brain dead cousin was not going to nurture you the same way that I could… you've decided to come back into the fold?"

Dillon pulled his hand away, feeling like there was some sort of creeping force that threatened to swallow his individuality whole. It was a feeling that he tended to feel whenever he was dealing with his mother. Something about her just seemed to be so threatening and imposing. Truly, it was the stuff of nightmares. "I didn't come back to be with you, mom, and I'm not leaving Jason and Courtney, I'm not leaving the life I have now… I like it there."

"Don't you realize how dangerous it is, Dillon?" Tracy asked with a sigh. "I don't want to be the person that has to go and identify your body because of the fact that you're connected with the resident hitman to the mob boss. Don't you realize that I love you too much to see you buried before me?" That statement was entirely true, not laced with any sort of secondary meaning or alternative motive. People could say what they wanted to say about Tracy Quartermaine, but if anyone tried to tell her that she didn't love her children as much as she possibly could then she would make sure that they found out just what kind of person she could be. Her brand of love may have been a little different from everyone else, but it was still a type of love.

"Is Brook here?"

"We're not done with this discussion, young man. I'm only trying to protect you from something that you're too blind to see. Why can't you believe me?"

"Because, mother, I've dealt with you and your ways before, I happen to know the way that you work better than you think I do. I know when you're being genuine, and I know when you're not. You could be acting in my best interest right now, I think you are, and I even thank you for that, but it doesn't matter, I'm not leaving where I'm at. I'm here to make sure that my niece is recovering from her ordeal as well as she can be expected to. Unlike you, I know what my role as a member of this family is…"

"I could pull you away from them, you know. I'm still your mother, you're still a minor. I never gave Jason or Courtney any sort of rights that would allow them to take you into their house. I never signed over any possible papers that would need to be assigned…"

"No, you just said that you understood what I needed, remember? You tried to get me to come back, you realized how much you screwed up, and you said that you would let me do what I thought was right. If you pull a stunt like that, mom, if you try and pull me away from people who care about me, from people who accept me, even though I have a few quirks in my personality, even if I might get on their nerves from time to time… then I'll never forgive you."

Tracy was stunned. To think, her easily manipulated son was starting to develop something akin to a backbone. The thought should have made her happier than it really did, because she realized that as soon as Dillon truly asserted his independence he would be gone from her. He was getting one step closer to pushing her away completely, and that was not something that he wanted to deal with.

"I'm going to ask you again, mom. Where is Brook Lynn?"

"How should I know?"

"She's your granddaughter, and she lives in this house. Why wouldn't you know where she is?"

"Because she doesn't talk to me."

"Have you made an effort to try and talk to her?" Dillon asked, watching as Tracy turned her eyes away, so that he wouldn't see the guilt in them, but he didn't need to see anything in order to know that it was there. "That's what I thought. I know that you're relatively new to this whole being a grandmother thing, but you saw the way that your own mother acted around her grandchildren… why don't you try and act a little more like Lila?"

"Don't you think I want to act more like Lila, Dillon?" Tracy asked, finally hurt beyond words. "Don't you think that, if I could, I would find a way to perfectly emulate everything that my mother stood for? Every action that I would take would be in the perfect mold of what Lila Quartermaine managed to accomplish. But it's impossible, Dillon. I can't do it!" Rare was it when she admitted that there was something that she couldn't do. Tracy loved to be able to say that she could do anything, it made her feel better about herself, made her ego stay in tip-top condition.

Dillon saw something in his mother that he rarely saw, if ever. He had seen it once before, when they were in Europe and Tracy attempted to send Edward a watch for a birthday or fathers day present, one of the two. She was so happy, thinking that it would make her daddy ever so pleased to have it. And then he remembered the way that she looked when the box came back, unopened, as if Edward didn't even care. That was the way that Tracy looked at that moment, and, in that very instant, Dillon felt bad for his own mother.

Upstairs, Brook was completely unaware of what was happening. She hadn't been crying anymore, although her heart was still consumed with the underlying feelings of sadness and doubt. She wanted to stay with her mother, but Lois insisted upon her coming back to the mansion. Why? Lois wasn't really descriptive on the why, but she rarely was. It tended to just be something along the lines of 'because I'm your mother, that's why.' An excuse that Brook used to hate, and even though she didn't particularly enjoy being treated like a child she would cope.

The door to her room opened and she expected it to be her father. But, when she looked in the mirror to see who it was it ended up not being her father at all. "Grandfather?"

Edward nodded slowly, "Can I come in?"

"Of course you can, this is your house," Brook smiled softly. She had been at the mansion for some time, but she didn't really feel connected with any of the people, not even her father on some level. The only one that she felt particularly close to was Dillon, and if that was because of the age or something else she wasn't completely sure.

"I wanted to talk with you yesterday, but you were gone for most of the day…"

"I'm sorry, I had a lot of things on my mind."

"Don't apologize," Edward replied. "We all know what you've been going through. Maybe not the exact specifics of your experiences, but, on the whole we understand…"

"I'm not sure I believe that…"

"Brook, listen to me. I'm an old man… I don't like to admit that, but I am. I've suffered great loss in my life… I just recently did again, when I lost Lila. But, I've also had great moments of joy… one of those was when I saw you come into the house on Christmas Eve with your mother. Lila always regretted the fact that she never got to see you after your mother took you away. The pictures that Ned would give her were enough to make her smile and comment about how beautiful you were, but it really wasn't enough for her… I'll admit, I wasn't nearly as distraught over your absence as my wife…"

"Gee, thanks…"

"No, don't take it as an insult. Lila was just… she was something else entirely. Nobody could ever hope to be like my wife, no matter how hard they try. Emily is attempting to fill in as much as possible, but she's too busy running around with her boyfriend to really be of use to any of us… and my daughter… well, you know how Tracy is."

"Yeah, I do…"

"Lila always loved Tracy, but nobody would be able to tell her that there was even the slightest chance that Tracy would ever be able to replace Lila in any way, shape, or form. It seemed like Lila's sainthood skipped a generation… or, in this case, two."

"What… what are you saying?"

"I'm saying that when I think about you, I see my wife. I see her spirit inside of you. I see what you have gotten from your great-grandmother, and it touches me on levels that I never thought would touch me again."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because I hate to see you miserable, Brook. I know what happened to your mother was a horrible, horrible thing, and we all wish that it didn't happen, but you're dwelling on it too much. Lois is fine, she's going to be all right…"

"We don't know that."

"You're right, we don't, but as far as we can tell she's going to survive and she's going to be with us for a long time."

"It's more than that, Grandfather," Brook remarked sadly. "This was the first time that I ever had to admit to myself that there was going to be a time, I don't know when, but there will be, when I don't have my mother at my side. There's going to be a time when I'm really alone… and I'm not ready to accept that, or deal with it."

"The only thing you can do is keep on going. Look at me… I lost the person who I love more than life itself, and there are days when I think that I won't be able to get up in the morning, but I find myself getting up anyway. Life doesn't end because of one event, no matter how crushing the blow might be. Lila would want me to keep on going and living my life, trying to be as happy as I can be without the best thing that's ever happened to me. It hurts, a lot… but I keep on going."

"It's easier for you."

"My dear… there are very few things in life that are easier for me to do than they are for you. One of them involves sleeping, and there are others that I won't talk about because doing so would be crass and rude, but surviving something like this? No… you are much better suited for it than I."

"What makes you say that?"

"Because you're a fighter, Brook. Like I said, you have Lila's spirit inside of you, I can see it. I can see some small part of your great-grandmother inside of you, and the part that I see inside of you is the best part of her. Cherish that part of her, Brook… and don't let anything keep you from being yourself."

Brook smiled and hugged her great-grandfather. The words that he had said to her were so precious and nice that she didn't really know what else to do, but she wasn't going to just sit there without doing anything. Maybe he was right, maybe he wasn't, the point was that he said something and she appreciated that.


	57. The Confidant

Samsonlove- Edward showed his sensitive side when Lila died. The scene where he touched Jason's cheek and said that he had Lila's eyes had me bawling my own eyes out. Plus, after her death, on the show, he said something about how Brook's voice was so beautiful, before she tried to have a career. So, Lila's death was the catalyst for showing people the softer side of Edward Quatermaine. GH hasn't been all that great, so you're actually not missing that much, if anything at all. I do hope that Ric is not returning to his evil ways, because I like repenting Ric, it gives him complexity. Complexity is a good thing.

Story-

Docks-

It seemed to those that were a little observant that the hub of Port Charles communication fell onto the docks of the fair town. People walked to and fro hundreds of times a day, sometimes more, and almost always there was a person or two who ended up stopping and having a conversation or two. Indeed, even to those who weren't exactly paying attention, it seemed like the docks were the place to go when people wanted to meet, or even when they didn't really want to meet.

Ric wasn't really the type of person who enjoyed being late to work. For Ric, truancy was not acceptable… but, there were always times when something came up, something that was surprising, so surprising that it seemed to trump whatever it was that he had planned at that particular moment. For Ric, that moment came when Sonny, his older brother, the man that Ric thought would never, ever accept him after everything he had done, had taken a small invitation for coffee. To most, it wouldn't have been all that important, but, to Ric, it was a small step towards something that was always desired: a wonderful relationship with his big brother. Ric was not a fool, he knew that the odds of Sonny actually finding a way to accept him, despite his faults, was slim to none, but, there was a faint glimmer of hope in his eyes, and that glimmer could turn into a full blown supernova if given the chance. He could only hope that it would, because, despite his anger towards the world, most of it stemmed from the lack of family that he always wanted.

It seemed selfish, and it seemed to be counterproductive to everything that Ric stood for, but he couldn't help it. When he saw people that were having fun together, when he saw families that looked like they were straight out of Hallmark cards a part of Ric's soul was ripped apart by the sight. Even when he was a little boy, even when he wasn't particularly aware of what he was missing out on, he knew what he wanted, and he knew that there was almost no way that he was going to get the thing that he wanted. Life had dealt Ric a horrible blow, and he had to find a way to make peace with it, but it was much easier said than done.

Sonny and Ric didn't talk about a lot of things. In fact, they spent most of the time just looking at each other and then looking away, only speaking in short, uncomfortable sentences. Despite their discomfort, it was obvious that they were both trying to do something new… if not for themselves, then for their families, although it was much more likely that the brothers were attempting to bridge their relationship because of their own secret yearnings.

It was because of the euphoric feeling that managed to somehow overpower the discomfort that Ric was running a few minutes late. John Durant, should he have been at the station, which he probably would be because he always seemed to have the worst possible timing, would likely bring that up in his attempts to usurp the position that Ric coveted: the district attorney's office.

He wasn't running late, unlike his uncle, who he didn't even notice was coming down the other end of the docks. His mind was thinking too much about his own issues to truly have a strong grasp on everything that was going on around him. Did that make it a horrible time to deal with the people that he would be forced to deal with for days on end? Yes, it did. But, Damian knew that if he let something like Maxie's betrayal destroy what he wanted to do with his life then everything that he worked so hard for would just end up being destroyed. He couldn't have that. No matter the pain, he was going to find a way to deal with it, get past it, and continue life. The only thing that was impeding him at that particular moment was the fact that every time he took a breath, or blinked, or moved there was a sharp pain that coursed through his entire being.

Ric was taking the high ground, with Damian walking on the lower section of the docks. They would not have even noticed each other, were it not for the fact that Ric caught the faintest glimpse of the boy out of the corner of his eye. "Damian!"

The boy stopped walking towards his destination, which wasn't the hospital because he had a few hours left before he needed to check himself in. He would have spent it in his room, but in doing so he was bombarded with so many memories and feelings. He needed to do something, anything, that would help him find a way to cope. "Uncle Ric… hi."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you like that."

"You didn't scare me… I was just thinking about something else."

"Do you want to talk about it?" Ric asked. Sure, he was technically late for his job, but what were they going to do? It wasn't like there was some pressing matter that he needed to deal with when he got into the office. They could manage to remain afloat without him holding their hands, or so he hoped. If they couldn't, then Ric really needed to look into finding replacements for the incompetent squad that he had at his disposal.

Eyes that showed the familial relation stared at one another, both sets shining with the faintest similarity that gave hint to the part of Adella Corinthos that made them both who they were stared back at one another. In Ric's eyes, Damian saw the honesty and compassion that he needed. In Damian's eyes, Ric saw something that he thought he would never see: sorrow. But, the ball was in the younger man's court, and, for whatever reason, probably because he didn't want to deal with talking about it with anyone, only turned away. "It's complicated…"

"You're Sonny's son, if there's ever something in your life that isn't complicated, that is worth more alarm than something being complicated."

"Please… don't try and joke around with me right now."

Ric sighed and nodded, "All right… you know, I thought you trusted me more than this."

"I do trust you."

"But you obviously don't trust me enough to tell me what's bothering you, whatever it is."

"I need to deal with it by myself… I just want some time to think about it alone. Actually, what I really want is something to get my mind off of the pain, because there is just so much pain that I need a distraction, I need to do something else."

"Maybe I can help you with that…"

"Really?"

"Yeah, really," Ric placed a hand on Damian's shoulder. "You know, we haven't really spent much time together since I got remarried to Elizabeth. Now, I know that you already knew her, I know that you already cared about her before we went down that path, but I think it would be great if you spent some time with just the two of us…"

"I can't," it wasn't that he didn't want to, it was just because he had other things that needed to be done. "I mean, I can't do it right now, Uncle Ric. I've got to deal with my internship at the hospital for the next few days before I can even do anything else. Don't think that I don't believe the idea to be a good one, because I do… it's just…"

"No, I understand. Believe me, there are times when I have to put my career in front of the things that seem a lot more fun than dealing with legal papers and trying to find a way to defend my client. Why don't you ask Maxie when she has an evening that's free? That way the four of us can do something together… maybe you won't feel as uncomfortable."

"Oh, trust me, it would be uncomfortable…"

"Come on, are you saying that you're too old to spend time with your uncle?"

"We broke up…" he muttered.

Ric couldn't really hear the younger man that much, because his voice was so muffled. He needed to hear him more clearly in order to truly understand what he was saying, "What was that?"

"We broke up, all right!" Damian repeated, the second time louder and with more anger and pain in his voice, letting out all the bunched up emotions that he had dealt with privately, although in letting them out of his system he hardly found himself filled with glee. "Maxie and I… we're not together anymore…"

It was at that moment that Ric saw the same thing that he had seen only minutes before, the pain that Damian tried in vain to keep hidden from the world around him. "What… what happened…"

"She was with another guy…"

"Maybe they're just friends."

"They were in her bed together, Uncle Ric. They were in bed together, and they were naked… I know what I saw. She cheated on me with some random person that she went to high school with… the girl that I thought I could trust with my heart stomped on it instead…"

Ric fell silent. What could he say? What could he hope to do that would find a way to help ease the pain that Damian was going through? Could he even say anything? There was something that he could say, although that which he could say was hardly going to be comforting enough. "I'm sorry…" it sounded completely unnecessary when he said it, but if there was one thing that Ric understood it was that there were times when the only thing a person could say were the things that sounded completely unnecessary and stupid, because only those words made sense. Only those words came out.

"Why?" He asked, more to himself than to anyone else. "Why'd she have to do something like that? Why couldn't we have kept on having the relationship that we had before? I was… I was so happy…"

"Sometimes these things happen for a reason."

"You think that Maxie tearing out my heart happened for a reason?"

"I don't know… I'm just trying to help you right now. I'm not very good at the whole comforting thing. Believe me, when I try to do it, things just end up coming out wrong. But I really am sorry for what happened, you have to believe that…"

"I do… that's why I told you. I haven't told anyone else yet, anyone… not even my father. You were the first."

Rather than take pride in the fact that his nephew had entrusted him with the information that was obviously quite important to his life, Ric found himself wishing that the news had never hit his ears, because if it didn't then maybe it wouldn't have happened… and there was one thing that Ric knew: he didn't want to see his nephew going through all that pain, even though there was apparently no way to avoid it.

"Could you do me a favor, Uncle Ric?"

"Sure… what do you need?"

"I need you to make sure that you don't tell anyone about what happened. Not Aunt Elizabeth, and certainly not my father. I need to deal with this on my own, I need to decide when to tell them what happened… I need to find a way to do this myself. Please, don't ruin that for me."

"I understand…"

"Thank you." Damian gave an appreciative smile that was laced with the inner torment of his battered soul before he attempted to turn and walk away. But, rather than be free, he found only the grip of his uncle to become firmer. Turning around, Damian saw little else before he felt the arms of Ric wrap around him, an appreciated attempt at making the pain go away, but certainly not a tactic that was met with much success.

Outside Port Charles High-

"I don't even know why I'm doing this…"

"Because you're still my little sister."

"I'm so mad at you right now…"

"Why are you mad at me?"

"Because of what you did, Maxie!" Georgie yelled. "You don't even seem to care about the fact that you managed to crush someone's spirit with one idiotic act that you pulled completely of your own free will!"

"I didn't mean to do it!"

"Don't lie to me like that!" Georgie quickly countered. "I know you better than that, Maxie. I know that the moment you saw what you thought you saw, which wasn't even what you really saw, you tried to find some way to make sure that he suffered just as much as you did when you saw him with Brook. You didn't think. You never think. You always just act and you end up hurting people because of it…"

"I made a mistake."

"And that makes it okay?" She scoffed. Sometimes she felt like finding a way to take apart her sister, and, if she knew how to do it and get away with it, there was very little that stopped Georgie from actually doing the dastardly deed. "I can't deal with you right now, Maxie. The only reason I agreed to see you is because I have a free period right now…"

"Nice to know that I manage to be more important than the time you spend alone in the library…"

"Whatever," Georgie rolled her eyes and walked off.

Maxie sat down on the nearby bench and sunk her head into her hands. Why did she have to destroy the good things in her life? Why couldn't she find a way to make everything decent?


	58. I Spy

Note: Max lives! Time to celebrate!

Samsonlove- Yes, the way that Maxie always finds some way to screw up the good things in her life is worthy of feeling some sort of pity for the poor child. But, she brings it upon herself, which makes it easier to not feel much of anything. Ric's softer side is so much better than his evil side. Less scary, which isn't necessarily a good thing, but better on the whole.

Story-

Outside The Quartermaine Mansion-

He walked his motorcycle up the path as much as possible, trying not to give them the slightest idea that he was even on the grounds. Jason usually didn't even ride his motorcycle any longer. Before, it had been a part of his being, a huge passion that he thought he would never lose. But now, now it was only something that he did when he felt the urge to sit on the bike and go came to him, which wasn't nearly as often as it had been in the past. Sometimes it only took a few years for a person to grow up, or grow out of a specific stage in life and maybe that had happened to him. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that he was married now, or married again, but this time to someone that he really cared about, someone who he wanted to be with. Before, with Brenda, it was just something that he did to save someone, but Courtney… Courtney was something special.

Jason would always remember the way that they would look at each other when they weren't together. The passion that existed between them even before it was spoken of, pulling them towards one another despite the fact that she was supposed to be with another person. On some level, Jason should have felt bad about stealing Courtney away from his brother, but AJ had decided to become the worst possible human being that he could be, and, because of that, Jason felt nothing in the way of pity for his older brother. Far from it, Jason, in some small way, reveled in the fact that he had taken Courtney from AJ, not because he needed to feel like he had one upped his brother, but because Jason knew that in doing so he pulled Courtney away from a life that nobody should have been forced to endure, especially someone with the hopes and dreams that Courtney had, with the love that she had in her heart. The Quartermaines would only find a way to squash that love and twist her into something else, something that he had once been.

The woman in question pulled up in her car and took a moment to stare at him. If he noticed that she had pulled up, which he probably had, he didn't let it show. No, instead Jason had chosen to remain stoic, as he often did, not letting the world around him see the vulnerabilities that rested inside. Courtney didn't think that it was fair, a person who was so passionate like Jason being forced to hide that passion from everyone just for the sake of his job seemed to be more of a punishment than anything else. But, Jason had made his choice, and if there was one thing that Courtney understood about her husband it was that when she tried to shape him, when anyone tried, he only pushed them away. If Courtney was one of the few people who saw the human side of Jason, then she would take that as the blessing that it was, not pity her husband for having to hide something about himself from everyone else.

After she was done looking at him, she walked out of the car, treading the pathway slowly and cautiously. Like Jason, Courtney didn't exactly feel the warmth that a person could feel from the house. Yes, it was beautiful. Even in the dead of winter, the mansion seemed to have a life about it, something that made it stand out from everything else. But, there was plenty missing from it as well. With Lila gone it seemed like a part of the light that beamed forth from the mansion had been forever dimmed out. Courtney remembered the woman well, the way that she would just smile at Courtney which caused Courtney to feel like everything was going to turn out okay. No matter the odds, Lila Quartermaine would find a way to remain positive. It was one of her best qualities, it was also one of the many qualities that seemed to be lost without her presence. How could people, even those that weren't related to Lila, continue to believe in hope when the symbol, the beacon that she was for the emotion was gone? They all did what they could, trying to become their own personal beams, but nothing would ever be the same.

Sometimes, Jason wished that he could remember what he had gone through while he was living with them. He knew that he spent a lot of his time away from the mansion, knew that they had sent him away to another school where he would occasionally visit from time to time, but, even with those gaps in time, Jason still wished that he could remember something. A feeling, good or bad. It would only seek to validate what he felt for them, for his family. He wished that he could remember everything that they were, everything that they stood for. If nothing else, in remembering those things about the Quartermaines he would find a way to make sure that he never emulated them again. Which, to him, was more important than a lot of things.

"Why are you out here?" Courtney finally asked, feeling that he had been given enough time to think about whatever it was that he was thinking about. Sometimes she could guess, other times it seemed to be something that only Jason could understand. After all, when it came to the Quartermaines there were so many possibilities, it would be impossible to think of just one. "Something didn't happen, did it? Alan, Monica, Emily… they're all right, aren't they?" Though he may have only treated Emily like a member of the family, Courtney knew that, at least on some level, Jason still cared about his parents. Perhaps Monica more than Alan, as she seemed to try and reach out more, even though she also kept her distance. But, Jason always knew that they were the people who had raised him, the people who would hold him when he needed to be held when he was little. Even though he might not have been able to remember it, that didn't mean it did not happen.

"I don't really know," Jason answered, because he could never be anything but honest, especially to the people that he cared for. Even the people that he hated, like the cops. Rather than flat out lie, Jason would say nothing. That was just the type of person that he had been, and it was probably because of his time at the mansion after the accident that he became that way. Jason saw the lies that they would tell each other, sometimes pertaining to him, the way that they would act a certain way, keep themselves from being honest with one another, and he hated that. He refused to allow himself to be that kind of person. In that way, they were perfect role models, because they taught him everything he needed to know about how not to be. "I just felt like I needed to see this place again…"

"Do you want to go back? I mean, you called me here, told me to come, but if you don't want to be here I won't keep you. Believe me, as much as you dislike this place I feel the same way. Maybe not as much, but the feelings are still pretty similar."

"No, I think I should stay for a little while longer. So should you. I guess I came here to remind myself of what I'm taking away from Dillon." His light blue eyes, eyes that were his and his only his, turned over to look at his wife. "Or at least what I'm taking him away from. Look at this place, Courtney. Look at it from the outside and look how nice it appears to be. The way that everything seems to be perfect, like there isn't a thing wrong with the house, or the people that are inside. Something that nobody could ever hope to aspire to. The Quartermaines, the example of perfection…"

"We both know that isn't true."

"Yeah, we do, but what about the world around us? You know that there are people, even here in Port Charles, who look at Alan and Monica and think that they can make it through everything. They don't realize what those two have gone through. And Edward… all the times he cheated on Lila, and the way that she stayed with him…"

"She believed that he was sorry. She believed that she loved him too much to stay away from him. I can't say that I blame her. In fact, I look up to her in a way. Someone who can let the love that she has for her husband trump all the things that he had done in the past that hurt her… on some strange level that is a very admirable trait."

"You remind me of her… a little."

"Jason…" Courtney blushed. "That's one of the nicest things you've ever said to me."

"And I mean it… when I think of the kindness and selflessness that you have inside of you, I'm reminded of Lila. And, because you remind me of her, I can't believe that someone would ever risk losing something like that. Edward's a fool for even thinking about taking that chance. I would never do it."

"Thank you." She walked over and leaned against his chest as they both looked at the mansion. "So, what's this have to do with Dillon?"

"He was upset that I never made him feel like he was truly welcome in the house. I don't mean that I ever made him feel unwelcome, at least not intentionally, but I never really made it seem like I wanted him there… and he felt that maybe, just maybe, I didn't want him to be. He said that if I wanted him to he would move back into the mansion, no questions asked, he would pack his things and leave."

"I can't believe that…"

"I can," Jason remarked. "Because he was telling the truth. On some level, I distanced myself from Dillon, even though he was right there, even though I could have just as easily embraced him and everything that he was to both of us… but I didn't. I don't know why I didn't, probably because of what I do and how much it could impact my job if I let someone else get in, but I chose to keep him at arms length. I do that with a lot of people… and I never knew that it could really hurt them until I saw the pain in Dillon's eyes…"

"You didn't mean it."

"That doesn't mean that I didn't do it."

Courtney sighed, "I don't see why you're blaming yourself, you didn't do anything wrong. I trust you, and so does he."

"He shouldn't, I haven't done anything to earn his trust…"

"But he does trust you, and he respects you."

"I just thought that maybe it would have been a good idea for him to leave. For a second I thought about it, Courtney. I really did. I thought about telling him that he needed to come back to the mansion… but I couldn't do it."

"Because you know what happens here, Jason," Courtney replied. "You know what they do to him, you know what they do to anyone who lives there… what they almost did to both of us."

"And I couldn't let them do that to someone that I cared about, just like, when you lived there, I didn't want them to break your spirit, too. Like they broke Ned, like they broke AJ. I managed to get what I wanted with you, I managed to see you get out of there before it was too late, but there was a chance that Dillon could have been stuck in that position, and a part of me was all right with that. I don't want to feel that way anymore… I don't want to worry about having to think that maybe he's too much of a handful…"

"He isn't really a handful, though," she said, taking a few steps away from him. "Dillon's a good kid. I'm not going to say that he doesn't have moments where he does something that I don't understand, but that doesn't make him a bad person, it makes him unique, it makes him special. How can anyone hate someone who is special?"

Jason shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know… all I know is I can't. And I can't knowingly allow him to be in a situation that would destroy his individuality. I just can't do it… it would be wrong, too wrong."

"So… you worked everything out with Dillon?"

"I hope so… if nothing else, I think we got to the point where we don't have to worry about hiding things from one another anymore. I think we can be more open and honest about things…"

"Some things…"

"I can't break the vow I took with myself, Courtney. Just like with you, there are things that I can't talk to anyone but Sonny about. You know that."

"I'm not the one you have to convince now, Jason." Courtney wrapped her arms around his waist and closed her eyes. "I'm just happy that you two managed to work things out. I like having him around… it makes things better for all of us, I think."

"I think so, too…" Jason rested his chin on her head. "Come on, let's get out of here… I've done what I needed to do."

Port Charles-

It didn't take him very long to find out the place where the boy that was old enough to be a student happened to attend school. John had connections, and he wasn't afraid to use them. What he was afraid to do was even see the child. Much like Carly before, John had never 'seen' a picture of the child. Michael Corinthos… he had an idea of who it could be, but he needed to prove one way or the other if the child that he thought was his grandson truly was the child he had in mind. For the sake of argument, John certainly hoped against it.

"I have to admit, it's a little odd that you're even here, Mr. Durant," one of the teachers said as they walked with John through the halls. "This isn't exactly something that we do with just anyone."

"Yes, well, I'm hardly just anyone, now am I?"

"Of course… we make exceptions for people who have a little more influence with others."

"That's the way this country works…"

The man opened the door to where the children were playing for their break. So many children, so many different activities. From the usual games of tag to the more advanced activities like chess. There was one thing that was relatively universal, however: the children were enjoying themselves. The man scanned the students, looking for the boy in particular. "There he is," he pointed in the general direction of Michael. "The redheaded child that is playing kickball."

John scoured the area until he saw the boy in question, and when he did he saw that it was the same child that he had encountered at the docks. That boy was his grandson. John nodded his head, "Thank you… that's all I needed to know." John left the school, with the man that had helped him in complete bewilderment as to why John even came around in the first place.


	59. Leave

Samsonlove- Maxie has her faults, but that's what makes her human, and what makes her appealing to some people, like me. I love Robyn's Maxie more, but that's just because I can't be trusted. Anyway, as for Ric, I loved evil Ric, because he was twisted, but I love good Ric, because good Ric is good. I just like Ric, a lot. I like anything that the writers give me as far as Ric and Sonny go, for the most part. I think that even if the writers don't write a very good storyline, Rick and Maurice act it out so well. John is a sick man, and you will see who he calls soon enough. It might surprise you. It should.

Story-

General Hospital-

He arrived with a few minutes to spare before he had to get working. As he walked into the doctor's locker room he saw them, his fellow interns. Some of them, anyway. A few who were going to be on the shift with him, a few who were just coming off the shift that they were on, they were all in there. And, they were talking. At least they were talking when he walked in. The minute that he got into the room, however, any of the chatter ceased for a moment as they all looked at him. It wasn't the first time that it had happened to him, nor would it likely be the last. No, the people that he worked with didn't exactly believe him to be of the same level that they were. After all, they had completed all their classes before they got the chance to be interns, but Damian got to be an intern well before he was finished with his classes. He was only twenty-one, they were all in their mid-twenties, the youngest member of the squad still being two years older than him. It was easy to see that they were envious of what he had accomplished, of the things that he had been granted in life, but the way that they looked at him made him feel like he didn't matter to them. And, at least at that moment in time, feeling unwanted was not something he wanted to deal with again. It brought up old wounds. Wounds that had yet to be healed.

Trying his best to casually ignore them as well as find a way to make it through the pain that he was feeling, Damian moved past the crowd towards an empty locker. It wasn't like high school where one was assigned to a specific person. People shared the lockers, taking the ones that were available. Sometimes they would want the same one over and over, but for the most part they made with what they had. Damian was no different, finding the first open locker and taking out the outfit that was neatly folded in his bag. By that time they had started to talk about things again, but, if their conversation changed, he would never know. Some of them were at least casually friendly with him, but on the whole he was usually alone, finding solace only in the people that came to visit him, his mentors and Bobbie. Maybe that was why they were so angry, because of the ties that he had with some of the more higher ranked officials in the hospital. Alan and Monica may have hated Sonny, but they certainly held no ire for him. Bobbie loved him dearly. Even, on some level, Tony appreciated him because of his connection to Maxie. Would Tony suddenly throw away his support because of what had happened? The thought had not crossed his mind until that moment, and when it did he was unsure of the answer. Tony loved Maxie dearly, partly because of the blood bond, but more so because of the fact that his own daughter's heart pulsed through Maxie's body.

Scrubbed up, wearing the pale blue outfit that most of the doctors wore when they were on duty as well as the smock, Damian walked out of the locker room a few minutes before the rest, never once taking a look over his shoulder to see if they continued to look at him. He had a feeling that they did.

She waited at the nurses station, knowing full well that eventually he would find his way there, they all did. It was impossible for a doctor at General Hospital not to at least pay a passing visit towards the nurses' station at least a dozen times a day. It didn't matter how long she had to wait, she would wait for hours on end if that was what she needed to do, just so that she would have the chance to talk with him, to explain what had happened, to explain how sorry she was that she screwed everything up. Maxie needed him to listen, she needed him to realize that she didn't intend to do anything bad, anything that would have hurt him. It just ended up being so much worse than it should have been. She couldn't help it. It wasn't her fault.

As she leaned against the nurses' station counter, leering in all directions, she finally saw him coming up around the corner. His face showed so much pain, like he was holding back everything that he wanted to let out, but was afraid to. She knew it would look something like that, but she had no idea that it would look exactly like that, that the look would hurt her nearly as much as it did. In that moment, she froze. Did she really want to go and talk to him? Did she really want to try and explain herself? Was it really necessary that she even made the attempt? Why should she have been the one to do it? Why couldn't someone else do it? Why did it fall on her shoulders? After all, Maxie wasn't the only one to make a mistake, right? He had done something that he shouldn't have done, he had made it look like he was doing something with Brook after he had assured her that he wasn't. It wasn't her fault that it looked so convincing.

But, in the end, Maxie understood that nothing she could tell herself was going to work. She couldn't just trade the guilt that was going through her mind for something else, because it was impossible to supplant. Sucking up her courage, and her pride, she walked over to him, intercepting him before he could walk away from her. "We need to talk…"

He knew that she was there. Saw her out of the corner of his eye, felt her as she lingered in the waiting, looking for him. He should have turned around and walked the other way, but he didn't. He didn't know why he didn't retreat, but it was too late to think about the reasons now. What he needed to do was find a way to get away from her, because he didn't want to talk. Not now, maybe not ever. "I'm on duty…"

"You don't start for another five minutes… I memorized your schedule, remember?"

"Schedules can change. Maybe I ended up switching shifts with someone because I knew that you would remember what time I started." A lie, not a bad one, but still a lie. Would she buy it?

Maxie shook her head, "I even asked the nurses to make sure one way or the other that I wouldn't be keeping you from something important. Besides, if you were on duty you'd probably have a chart or something in your hands, and you don't have anything. No, you're just trying to make up excuses because you don't want to talk with me."

"Shouldn't you be with your bedmate?"

Maxie lowered her eyes, "That was harsh."

"So was walking in on you having sex with another guy, but you seemed to not care about my feelings at that point in time. You know what they say about payback, Maxie. It's a bitch."

"Don't talk to me like that… please. I don't want you to be angry with me."

"That's kind of hard, don't you think?" Damian asked. "I mean, I don't even know what I did to you that pissed you off so much, but whatever it was you made sure that what you did would absolutely destroy me. So, tell me why I shouldn't be angry with you?"

"Because…" and she realized that she didn't have an answer. Not a good one. Not even a bad one. She also realized that he knew that she didn't have an answer, and that he was using that fact to his advantage.

"Shouldn't you be at school?" He had memorized her class schedule as well. She had a class that she needed to be at. Just because it was early in the semester didn't mean that she could just throw away her studies. If anything else it was probably more imperative that she be at the school and feeling out her teachers instead of trying to make him feel even more uncomfortable than he already was feeling.

"I needed to talk with you… it was more important."

"I don't want you skipping out on your education because of me. Your father already hates me, Maxie. If you told him that we broke up he probably blames me and hates me even more, if he finds out that you're skipping out of school to spend time with me, to try and patch things up, then Mac will find some random little violation that I've done sometime in my life, a parking ticket or something, and find a way to put me away for it…"

"Mac's not like that."

"Mac is exactly like that."

He may have had a point. She could envision her father doing exactly what he said Mac would do. Sighing, Maxie realized that it was going to be more difficult than she thought to get some time with him. "Can we please talk?"

"I have nothing to say to you, Maxie. I just want you to leave me alone. If the same thing had happened between the two of us but with me being the one who wronged you, I would give you the space that you needed. Please respect that… working here is going to be difficult for me because I'm still so hurt by what you did, don't make it worse on me. If you distract me too much then you're just going to put other people at danger. I could lose my internship, I could lose my career as a doctor… you've already destroyed one dream of mine, don't take the chance of destroying another, please." Without even giving her enough time to formulate a response, Damian left her to go and find something to do. Anything. Even if it involved cleaning a bedpan he would do it.

Maxie watched him go, not out of respect, but mostly because she was stunned by the way that he spoke to her. That kindness and gentility that she thought made him so perfect was gone, and she knew that it was gone because of what she did. She had stripped something that was so pure and good away from him, and she did it because she was such an idiot, because she didn't have the good sense to realize more about the truth than to just formulate some sort of ideas in her head about what was happening. That was horrible of her, and she didn't really understand the scope of her error until that particular moment.

With nothing else to do, with nothing else to say and with the knowledge that he would end up pushing her away even if she tried to do something else, Maxie walked away and into the elevator, shutting the door so that nobody else would see her inside. When she was alone she leaned against the wall and started to cry. Everything that was good in her life always ended up being destroyed, and it was almost always her fault.

On the other end of the hospital, he stopped walking for a moment, staring at himself in the window of the maternity ward. He could see it in his reflect, a dim but still shining light that came from his eye. A tear. He wiped it away as quickly as possible before walking down the hall.

Kelly's-

"You're in here alone today?" Mike asked as he saw Carly walk into the dinner. It was unusual to not see her with Courtney, with Sonny, with Jason or with her children. Rare was it when Carly decided to go solo. Usually, it was because something was troubling her. Mike understood his daughter in law well enough to know that much, which was both touching and a little bit disturbing because people would often say that those who understood Carly that much were in too deep and needed to pull out as quickly as possible.

"Everyone's abandoned me," Carly said coyly, "I'm like a leper."

"Sometimes you might be…"

"Mike!" Carly exclaimed. "What a horrible thing to say!"

"You put the idea in my head, Carly. Nobody but you. But, no matter what happens, people will always welcome you back into their lives completely, because whatever you do, whatever mistakes you make, you always find a way to show people that you're worth having around. You care about them so much that they can't help but want you in their lives."

Carly smiled, but inwardly she was thinking about some of the things that she had done to people that they wouldn't forgive her for, ever. Mike was probably one of them, but Sonny was the big one. Her own husband. If he found out about what she had done… what had happened because of her desperation, he would never forgive her. Not that she expected him to. In fact, if Sonny ever did find out the truth about the accident it would only be from karma, and she would accept that. It would tear apart her soul, but so was holding the secret from him. Thankfully, someone else knew, and in being able to talk about it with someone, even if that someone wasn't exactly her favorite person, she felt some of the guilt be taken from her shoulders, and any amount of guilt that was taken off of her was certainly worth the effort.

"Carly? You okay?"

Carly blinked two times in a quick motion. "Yeah, Mike, I'm fine. I was thinking about something. You know me, always thinking."

"It's one of your best and worst qualities. Penny for your thoughts?"

"Actually, I came in here to see if I could find anything about my mother and the way that she's been acting."

"You're still on that hunt?"

"I can't help it," she replied. "I know that my mother and I have had a history of bad blood, but that is behind us now, at least on a lot of levels. I want to help her, and she won't let me. I don't know why she won't…"

"Sometimes it's easier for someone to deal with their problems on their own than to have anyone help them. You should give Bobbie the benefit of the doubt, because if she felt that she was in too deep I know that she would go to someone for help, and you would probably be on the top of that list."

"I wish I could really believe you when you say that… but sometimes it's a lot harder to think about myself as a confidant to my mother instead of thinking of myself as that person who tried to break her entire life apart when I was younger."

"You've grown up, so has she."

"The first point is debatable."

"Well, why don't you debate it with yourself over a cup of coffee? Have a seat, and I'll go and grab the container."

Carly nodded with a smile on her face. Mike always had a way about him that made her feel better when she was down. She saw a part of him that Sonny had either forgotten about or never seen. And, even if he did, he would probably find some way to forget about it, or discredit the feelings that he had inside of his soul. Carly sat down at a table and looked out the window to see Durant staring at her. She rolled her eyes and looked the other way, turning around a second later to see that he was gone. "Creepy bastard," she muttered as she waited for her coffee.


	60. Dear Well, Not Abby

Port Charles High-

As always, the new incarnation of the teen musketeers of Port Charles waded through the halls of their not so fair school huddled together and depending upon one another for support. Each of them had their own respective problems or at least quandaries. Some of those problems did not stem from their own life. Georgie had to deal with the knowledge of her sister ruining yet another relationship with the boy that just happened to be her own boyfriend's best friend, not to mention a person that Georgie herself happened to care about a great deal. Brook was still dealing with all the ramifications that came from her mother being in that car accident. Not many people knew, thankfully, but each time someone looked at Brook for just a little too long she would think that maybe they were trying to figure out how she was handling what had happened to her. If there was one thing that Brook Lynn did not appreciate it was being under the microscope. She wanted to be her own woman, not be the type of person who everyone watched. That was one of the reasons why, despite her vocal talents, which she knew she had, she didn't want to be the famous person that her mother dreamed of. Brook didn't want her life to be on the front page of tabloid after tabloid. She loved her privacy, and that was why she enjoyed spending time with her friends, because they respected the fact that there were times when she just didn't want to talk about what was going on with herself. Dillon, the sole male member of the trio, was still trying to smooth over the relationship that he had with Jason. They had worked out some of their problems, but they didn't have some huge breakthrough. Jason could say that he wanted Dillon to be there with him, but would Jason show the emotion that Dillon wanted? That was something that he wasn't so sure about. Jason and emotions tended to be on opposite ends of the spectrum. Dillon knew that Jason was capable of feeling them. He saw them every time Jason was around Michael, but, aside from the very few times where some sort of circumstance managed to come around, Jason was not big on the touchy and the feely.

While the trio may have been together, they weren't really talking. Occasionally they would say one thing, but it wouldn't go anywhere. They would talk about what they were eating for lunch and how it tasted, offering a fry or a chip here and there, but any of the chatter that made them the close knit group that they were was gone, and each of them, in their own way, felt the pangs of losing that bond. They had only been together for a little while, Dillon and Georgie having years of connections that Brook would not have with them, but in the short time that Brook had been brought into their life they welcomed her into the fold and let her in on as much of their lives as they could. Of course, there were some things that just wouldn't be shared, like the way that they cuddled, and what they did when they were alone, which wasn't very much, it was actually pretty much exactly what they did in public. The idea of sex had been tossed around many, many times, by both parties, but, in the end, Georgie often felt that she wasn't yet ready to give that specific gift to anyone, even someone that she loved as much as Dillon. Though disenchanted, Dillon would always understand and he would always wait. Having Georgie in his life as much as he did without the sex was much better than not having her in his life at all.

They finally stopped walking aimlessly around the halls of Port Charles high, ending instead by sitting on the steps that were leading up to the second story of the school, Dillon and Georgie holding hands with one another, a connection that they would always feel regardless of the words that were being said. Brook was slightly distanced from the pair, leaning against the wall. Occasionally she would look at them and she would be envious of what they had. Of course, she didn't want the same connection with Dillon that Georgie had, but the connection that they shared, just in terms of being with one another, that was something that she did want… with anyone. One person in particular, of course, but if she could find someone else, someone who made her feel the same way and someone who she could be with in that way, she would jump at the chance.

Georgie was the one who was feeling the worst amount of personal turmoil. She couldn't help it. While Brook may have been going through something that was more important, she at least knew that her mother was going to be all right. Georgie had no idea how Maxie was going to recover, or even if she was going to. Worse, Georgie didn't even know why she cared about the fact that Maxie was so miserable. Georgie meant what she said, she didn't care what Maxie did with her life anymore, because it no longer involved her. Georgie couldn't do it anymore, she couldn't keep on being there to pick up the shattered pieces of her sister's life. It was getting to the point where Georgie barely had time to deal with her own problems because there was almost always something that Maxie was worried about. She was worried about how he felt about her, or if he wanted to be with Brook, and now she was going to be worried about what she was going to do without him. And all those questions would fall on Georgie. Georgie would be the one that was expected to find a way to solve them. Nobody else. Just Georgie.

Finally, the pain of dealing with all the frustration just became too much for her mind to bear. There was a threshold that Georgie had internally, a lever that seemed to always be able to hold all the angst that Maxie sent her way. Whatever that lever once was, it was destroyed, or at least lifted. Georgie gripped Dillon's hand tightly so that he looked over at her. She gently tilted her head over, signaling that the two of them needed to go and talk about something. Standing up, she saw Brook's eyes move towards her. "I need to talk with Dillon really quickly, Brook. It won't take long. That's all right, right?"

"What?" Brook snapped back into reality as she looked at her friend. Georgie was probably her best female friend, and Dillon her best male friend. They were also pretty much her only male and female friends, which presumably said a lot about her. "Yeah, sure… go ahead, don't let me keep you two from whatever it is that you need to talk about. Actually, I need to talk with my teacher for my next class, I think he's in the room right now. So, I'll see you guys later, all right?"

Dillon and Georgie nodded as Brook walked away and turned around the corner. When she was gone, Georgie sank her head into Dillon's chest. "I hate that I have to tell you this…"

"Tell me what?"

"They broke up…"

"Who broke up? Steve and Leah?" The 'popular' couple at Port Charles, although why Georgie would be distraught over their breakup was beyond Dillon, but who else could she be talking about?

Georgie pulled herself away. "Dillon… I'm being serious right now. They broke up… Damian and Maxie… they broke up last night." She didn't even know if she should have been the one to tell him, but it seemed better hearing it from her than anyone else, sans Damian himself. And, even then, when his best friend did tell him, Dillon would be ready to do whatever it was that he was expected to do as a best friend.

Dillon looked at Georgie in shock. Could she really be talking about the two of them breaking up? The two who seemed to be even more perfect than Dillon and Georgie themselves? "What… what happened?"

"Maxie saw Damian with Brook when they were in the chapel at the hospital. They were hugging, and Brook was leaning on him because she was so upset over what had happened with Lois. Of course, my sister, being the person that she is, refused to actually think about what was going on for a second and decided that she was going to think that it was the worst possible thing that could have happened. She thought that he was lying to her and cheating on her, so she decided to do the same thing. You remember Robbie? Kyle's friend…"

"The pinhead who held me down while Kyle beat me up the first summer I was here?" Remembering the incident made his jaw ache a little. "Yeah, I think I remember who you're talking about."

"Well, that was who Maxie decided that she wanted to cheat on Damian with. Because she thought that it was only fair… and… he walked in on them. I don't know if she wanted him to walk in on them or not, but he did, and she didn't seem to care. You should have seen her, Dillon, the way that she looked at him… with all that anger in her eyes. She didn't even care when she saw him crumbling in front of her."

"This is bad…"

"Yeah, I know."

"No, you don't know, Georgie…" Dillon shook his head. "Think about this from my perspective, would you? Maxie is your sister, and she's still one of my best friends because of how much time I spend with you and her. Damian is my best friend, and he's going to be crushed and probably going to look for some support from me… and Brook's my niece. When she finds out what happened…"

"But she won't…"

"There's no way in hell that she won't find out what happened, Georgie. You know that. This is Port Charles. When someone sneezes everyone knows about it. This is huge. Once it gets out… it's going to be bad." Dillon didn't even want to think of the ramifications that it could have between Sonny and his family with Mac. They were barely connected through the union of son and daughter, but now?

"I don't know what to do, Dillon. I'm so mad at my sister that I don't want to help her. But, she's still my sister, and I know that she's in so much pain right now that I can't just turn a blind eye to her. Can I?"

"You need to do what you feel is best… we both do."

"What if we pick different sides?" Georgie asked. "What if I decide to defend Maxie, and you defend Damian? What's that going to do to us?"

Dillon grabbed her hand, "This doesn't involve either of us, not really. Whatever happens, we need to promise each other that we're going to stay together, that we won't let our opinions on what happened to them impact our relationship with one another."

Georgie nodded. "I promise." She hoped that it was a promise that she could keep. It was not a promise that she was going to make in vain. She wanted to keep her word.

Harbor View Towers-

Courtney had left Jason to do what he thought he needed to do. It was one of those times when it was best not to ask questions, so Courtney respected that idea and did not ask any questions about what he was going to do. Instead, she went home, satisfied that something was going right in her life, but she didn't take it for what it was, not completely at least. She still wanted some help, she still needed some help.

The woman stepped out of the elevator and saw her big brother standing there. She smiled at Sonny as she stopped in front of him. "Going somewhere?"

"Yeah, I've got some business that I need to take care of. One of the coffee importers is in town, I need to pay him a visit." It wasn't code for anything. One of the main owners of the big supplier of the coffee really was in town. "But… I've got a little bit of time left. You look like you have a lot on your mind. I know that I haven't really been playing big brother much with you lately… but…"

"You're a great big brother, Sonny," Courtney replied softly. "Really. You're the best big brother that I could ever hope for. And I mean that. Before, I would wish that I had a big brother that would help me solve all my problems. I would dream about this person who would look so much like me, he would have the same eyes, and blond spiked hair… sort of like Billy Idol, only not as disgusting."

"And then you got me…"

"Yeah, but what you are is hundreds of times better. I couldn't have dreamed to have a big brother as good as you. So you don't spend as much time with me now… I have Jason, and we both have our own lives. I'm not a little girl, I'm not even that girl that came to Port Charles that you thought you needed to protect. I can take care of myself. Hell, I can probably take you out."

"Don't get too cocky, little sister."

"So says the man who believes himself to be God's gift to women, dimples and all…"

Sonny smiled, showing the aforementioned dimples. "Seriously, though. Are you all right, Courtney? There's nothing on your mind that you need to talk about?"

Courtney thought about letting him go, but she realized that there were times in her life where she really did need her big brother's advice. She could have gone to Carly, but Carly loved Jason so much and she really wasn't particularly fond of Dillon. They had some strange sort of friendship, but it wasn't very deep. Mike didn't know Jason that well, though he did know Dillon. Sonny was the only person who knew Jason well, and who knew Dillon on some level and had a positive opinion about him, which actually made him the best person to talk with. "Yeah, I guess I could use my big brother right about now."

"Shoot…"

"Jason and Dillon were having some problems. Dillon didn't feel that Jason was appreciating him as much as he wanted to be. So, Dillon confronted Jason about it…"

"That wasn't very smart."

"No, it wasn't, but everything turned out all right. I just… I don't know if what Jason said was just something that he said to make Dillon feel better about his place in Jason's life, or if he really felt that he wanted Dillon to be t here. I want to pry, but I don't want to pry at the same time. I want them to work it out, but I don't want them to be unhappy. I feel like I'm stuck in the middle. Jason's my husband, I love him so much, but Dillon… Dillon's become important to me, you know? He's a part of my life now, and I want him to stay that way."

"I get what you mean," Sonny agreed. Dillon had become a part of his life, too. Not a very big part, but a part of Sonny's life that he would actually miss if it was taken away. "The best thing you can do right now is wait." That was the best advice that he could give. Wait out the problem, and hopefully it would find a way to resolve itself.


	61. Old Hat

Samsonlove- It is good that you believe that Maxie got what she deserved. I don't know if she did, but I know her motivations better than most, since I'm the one writing this. Plus, I like the story, so I guess I kind of feel bad for someone suffering because of something that makes the storyline better, at least from my perspective. You'll have to wait and see who Durant called, but I can assure you that it is someone familiar, although not someone who has ever been in the story before.

Story-

Kelly's-

Elizabeth could understand why her husband wanted her to quit the job that she was doing. It really wasn't all that exciting. There wasn't much effort to the waiting game. Her passion was still painting, and it probably always would be. And now, with Ric being who he was and having the money that he did she would have the time and the money that she needed to try and be a successful artist. It was like the dream that she had made while she was in love with Lucky was finally coming true, she could finally take the chance on a career that she wanted to take, and maybe not worry about failing. But, maybe that was part of the reason why she didn't want to do it: because it wasn't the dream that she had with Ric, it was the dream that she had with Lucky. They never spoke of it anymore, it was a part of them, it always would be, but they understood that any boat that they had with one another had sailed off, and it would likely never return to the docks of Port Charles again. Elizabeth was unsure of who her true love was, but she would always know that Lucky was her first love… for all she knew, he could have been her true love, but she also knew that she loved Ric and that she was very happy with him. There were bad times in the past, but there were bad times in the past with Lucky and with Jason as well. She couldn't be so focused on the bad times that she forgot the good times that came with them, because the good times usually made the bad times seem kind of obsolete. The happy times that she had with Ric were much more evocative than the bad times that she had with him, and she wanted to put the bad times behind her. After all, Ric had changed from the person that he used to be. It was funny in its own way, Elizabeth always swore that she could be the one to change him, to make him a different person, but it ended up not being something that she could do, but someone else. Someone with a blood connection to him. In that small way she was almost jealous of Damian, because he had done something that she wished she could do for the man that she loved, but she realized that it was better that someone, anyone, do the deed rather than being hung up on the fact that the person who did it was not her. If she continued to think about things like that then there was almost no chance that she would be able to make the relationship that she had with Ric work, and then she might subconsciously blame the boy for giving it everything that he had to repair the broken relationships that his family had when he arrived. The last thing that Elizabeth wanted to do was hate Damian in any way.

Elizabeth leaned against the counter and saw the stool where he had sat the first time that he arrived in Kelly's, when he didn't know who he was, when she didn't know who he was. Just some fresh faced Californian looking to be a doctor. If she had known the things that she now knew when he arrived, what would she have done? Would she have tried to send him back? Send him on his way to avoid the pain that he would undoubtedly feel? Or would she take him under her wing even more than she did, and try and shield him from that pain, but allow him to experience some of it so that he could learn from the lessons that he was taught during that time? If she pushed him away, then he would have never met Maxie, and that happiness that both of them had would have been gone, never once experienced. Elizabeth knew the power of love, especially the first love. To rob someone of that power, no matter who they were, was just wrong. Elizabeth had seen Maxie with Kyle, and she never truly believed that they were into each other nearly as much as Maxie tried to make people believe, or tried to make herself believe. No, the sparks that she saw in Maxie's eyes happened when she saw the girl with Damian, and not with anyone else. If for that reason and that reason alone, Elizabeth knew in her heart that she wouldn't have been able to push him away from the life that he was destined to be a part of. A life that she was once almost involved in as well…

As the door opened, Elizabeth paid little attention to the person who was walking in, still caught up in her own thoughts. Eventually, she looked up and the person who happened to walk in at that particular moment made her smile. It seemed to be somewhat karmic in nature. She was just thinking about him. "Jason, hi."

"Elizabeth," Jason replied with a slight nod. Looking at her, Jason realized that he still cared about her. They weren't any sort of feelings that would intrude on his relationship with Courtney, but Jason still wanted what was best for her, because of what she had done for him, what she had meant to him once upon a time. It was because of those feelings that he would always think that it was a bad idea for her to be involved with Ric. He wasn't good enough for her, Jason knew that for a fact. Ric wasn't good enough for anyone in his eyes. Jason tried not to be too judgmental, but when it came to people like Ric he didn't mind.

"Are you looking for someone?" She asked, still behind the counter. There was always some sort of uneasy feeling that she felt when she was around Jason. Not because she didn't trust him, or think that he would hurt her, but because she wasn't sure what was going on in the world around them, what was going on with Jason. It was that feeling of the unknown, as well as the fear, that made her leave Jason. She just couldn't handle worrying about what could happen to him on a day to day basis. She loved him too much to worry about that, and she still cared about him too much to truly accept what he was doing. She'd probably never be able to do it. Courtney needed to be commended for having the ability to find some way to reach the middle ground and be with him despite her reservations. "Or did you come here to eat."

"I skipped breakfast," Jason replied in his blank manner. Even Jason Morgan, famed hitman and superman, needed to get something in his stomach from time to time. And there really wasn't much that he could get at the penthouse. Despite the fact that Dillon was there and that they now had more food the things that the teenager ingested were not appealing to Jason. Why did Dillon have to have so many bags of chips? "You don't mind, do you?" Jason asked. "If you're uncomfortable with me being here, I can go somewhere else…"

Elizabeth shook her head, "Jason, this is a business, you know that. I can't just turn away customers because I feel like it, and even if I could, I would never do it to you…"

Jason didn't exactly believe what Elizabeth was saying. He could see it in her eyes, the same feeling that he saw when they were together, that hint of nervousness that would never go away no matter how hard they tried. But, Jason did not want to leave her with that feeling. He wanted her to be safe. So, he saw at one of the stools. "How is everything with you?" Jason asked. The man wasn't great at small talk, but that didn't mean that he didn't know how to do it.

"It's great, thank you for asking." Elizabeth smiled as she grabbed the coffee cup. "Do you want some?"

"No, thanks."

She giggled, "The coffee importer doesn't even want some of his own coffee. That's ironic, in a way."

"I guess it is," Jason hadn't really thought about it. The coffee business was just a face that they used to give them some sort of income that was legit. That was all it was to him, another part of the plan. Jason didn't really like coffee.

"I don't want to sound intrusive or anything, Jason, but… have you spoken to Dillon recently?" Elizabeth had not forgotten the way that the young man looked, the sorrow in his words, in his face. And they were emotions that were caused directly because of Jason. Hardly intentional, but still.

"He talked to you about… what he was going through?"

"Are you surprised at that?"

"I guess not," Jason said after a moment of thinking it over. "You always had that air about you, Elizabeth. Where you would be the type of person that anyone could look towards for support…"

She blushed, but she also thought that Jason never looked to her for the support that she wanted to give him, because it would mean involving her in the life that he didn't want her to be in, that she didn't want to be in. She understood why he made the choices that he made, but that didn't mean that she enjoyed them. "Thank you, Jason, that means a lot to me."

"Dillon and I talked last night. Whatever problems he had with me should be gone… or at least out in the open. I hope that we can really get through them. I don't want him to feel like he felt when he was with the Quartermaine's. Courtney took him in because they tossed him out, because she wanted to give him a better chance at happiness than he would have ever had there…"

"And who better to know about what people go through at the mansion than the two of you, right?" Elizabeth asked and then she put her hand over her mouth. "I'm sorry, Jason… was that insensitive?"

"No, it wasn't. I stayed with them after the accident for a little while. Staying with them made me realize why I needed to leave so badly, why I couldn't give Dillon a home life that mirrored the one that we had before. So we're going to try and make sure it never happens."

"I'm glad, Jason. Really, I am." Elizabeth leaned over the counter once more. "I wasn't sure what you were thinking when you brought him into the house like that, but, if you can give him something that he needs, and if he can do the same for you, then I really am happy for both of you."

"You always like to think the best about every situation, no matter what, don't you?" Jason asked. Elizabeth's endless optimism was touching and perplexing at the same time.

"It's the only way I know how to be. Why, do you not like it?"

Jason shook his head, "Don't change it, Elizabeth. It's one of your best qualities. It makes you who you are."

Port Charles Police Department-

It was hard to get any work done, even on the Durant side of things, because of what he was thinking about. The way that the boy looked. That look of crushed dreams that seemed to make him crumble. Ric never wanted someone he cared about to feel that way about anything, but, apparently it couldn't be stopped. Damian tried to be so strong, but Ric knew that nobody was that strong. Nobody could truly recover after losing the person that they loved. Ric got lucky, he got a second chance with that person, but he wasn't so sure that fate would be as kind to his nephew. If there was any sort of justice in the cosmic balance, there would be. Damian, of all people, deserved nothing but the best in the world. After everything that he had done, everything that he had gone through, to deny him something so simple as happiness just seemed to go against everything that should have been right.

Where would he have been if it wasn't for his nephew? It was a question that Ric had asked himself many times in the past. His relationship with his brother wouldn't even be as good as it was, which was saying a lot because it wasn't great, but they were able to be in the same room without one of them wanting to kill the other. A vast improvement considering their past encounters. Elizabeth would have never given him a second chance. She would have been afraid to admit that there was a part of her that wanted to be with him again. Damian brought that out of Elizabeth. He told her that she needed to do what made her happy and not worry about anything else. Ric knew that the boy was special, but in thinking about it, he realized just how special the young man was to a lot of people. He wasn't perfect, far from it… but he certainly didn't deserve to be hurt like that. Ric felt helpless, and that was easily his least favorite feeling in the world.

Mac, still in the dark about the breakup that would have probably caused him to do a happy dance around the room, walked into the office. "Do you have a minute?"

Ric turned his eyes up at Mac and felt the anger swell up inside of him. But, Mac couldn't truly be blamed. Or could he? Mac had never, ever, been supportive of the relationship that they had with one another. He always thought that Damian wasn't good enough for Maxie, that he would only break her heart. Surprise, surprise, it turned out to be the other way around. Out of respect for his nephew and what he may have been going through, Ric did not act on his anger. It wasn't his fight, not yet. If he was asked to throw his hat in the ring he would without hesitation. It was the least he could do for someone who had helped him. "What do you need, Mac?"

"I just wanted you to know that, as far as things go, he's calmed down a lot in the past few days. I don't know if this is the calm before the storm, of if he finally got tired of trying to take over…"

Ric snickered, "John won't stop going at full force until he gets what he wants, and that's the end of my brother and Jason."

"You used to want that, once upon a time."

"And it almost swallowed me whole, remember? Look, I know how stupid this sounds considering how I used to feel, but Sonny has never been convicted of a crime before, which means that, as far as the justice system goes, he's an innocent man…"

"You know as well as I do that he should have been found guilty time and time again in those trials. He paid off the judge, the jury, he did everything that he could to make sure that he didn't go to jail."

"The point is that we have this system intact for a reason. It might not be perfect, but it's there, and we need to respect that. If Sonny breaks the rules, if he breaks the law, I'm going to do what I can to take him down and make sure that he doesn't do it again, but I'm not going to let that quest become the entirety of my being again. I almost lost everything the first time I tried that, Mac. I'm not going to make the same mistake twice."

Mac wasn't entirely sure that he believed what Ric was telling him. After all, this was the man that had now found a kindred spirit in his nephew. What would stop Ric from turning the other way when Sonny did do something, just to gain his big brother's favor? "We've got some breathing room right now, Ric. But who knows when that will be taken away from us. Don't lose sight of the goal that we have, Durant needs to go away."

"I know," Ric replied solemnly. He just hoped that Durant didn't go away the way that Sonny would have wanted him to go away. Ric didn't want someone to die, not even someone like Durant.


	62. The Arrival

Kelly's-

"I'm really surprised you picked me up from school today," Michael stated as he sat down at his favorite table in the restaurant. The one that was closest to the jukebox was easily the best table in the place, and, whenever he was there, he always made sure that he would get that table. It didn't work against him that his grandmother was the owner of the place, and that his grandfather was the cook and the person who ran it because of Bobbie's other duties with the hospital, which had to take priority. Michael understood that. It was probably why he was able to take his brother being gone as often as he was so well, because he knew that Damian, like Bobbie, was doing what he could to help people get better, to save their lives. And, if they could save just one person it was all worth it, to think that he was more important was selfish, and Michael had learned that selfish thoughts were never a good thing. God liked it when people were selfless, when they thought of others.

"Why are you so surprised, buddy?" Sonny asked.

"Because usually you have someone else do it. Sometimes its Max, sometimes Leticia, or one of the drivers, or even Damian, but hardly ever you, daddy."

"Are you saying that you don't want me to pick you up from school?"

"No way!" Michael quickly shot down the idea of his father ignoring him. "I love it when you pick me up from school, because then I can show all my friends that my daddy came to get me. People know who you are, they see your face in the papers almost all the time, or on the television. Their parents usually have them go in the other room or something, but they know what you look like. Sometimes they don't want to believe that I'm your son, that I'm just saying that I'm the son of some famous person because I want to have some of that fame all to myself. But they're silly people, they don't understand how much I love you."

Sonny chuckled, "A lot of people don't understand how much you love me, Mike." While he was all smiles and happiness, inside, Sonny was thinking about what Michael had said. He'd never really thought about it in that way, the children knowing who he was. Sonny wasn't a fool, he knew that the parents of the classmates would have a good idea of who he was, even though none of it had been proven, true or not. It took a rather big donation on his part to even keep Michael in the school once they found out that he was Sonny's child. Sonny thought all the people to be cowards. Striking at the innocent little child because they were afraid of talking to him. Foolish people. But, in the same situation, what would he do? If one of his enemies had a kid in the same school as Michael, how would he react? It was really easy to think about what a person would do if it happened, it was a lot harder to react properly when it did happen.

"How are we going to make them understand?" Michael asked, his age allowing him a certain degree of ignorance, which was also one of the core reasons why everyone tended to pull away from telling Michael too much about what was going on. They were afraid that he was going to react in the wrong way, that he would think of something as being more horrible than it was, and nobody wanted that. Not Sonny, not Carly, nobody. "Maybe I can draw a picture of all of us as a big happy family… that should show them, right?"

"It's not a bad idea, buddy, but, you know what I think would work even better?"

"What?"

"That we don't even let it bother us. The best way that we can make them understand that we care about each other, that we're just as good a family as anyone else is to keep on doing what we do any other day of the year. If the people around us choose not to believe that we care about each other, that we don't love each other just as much, if not more, than them, let them think that. We know the truth… and that's all that matters."

"That sounds like something Damian would say. You two sound a lot alike sometimes… which is funny, because he grew up without you as his daddy…"

"Your brother's a smart man, Michael, and he had good people who helped raise him because I didn't know about him." Ana, Elias, Victoria, they would all have his eternal gratitude for giving Damian the foundation that he needed to become the person that he wanted to be. It would have been so easy for the boy to fall into the same cracks that Sonny did when he was Damian's age, easier than it was for Sonny. Los Angeles was a bigger mob territory than people cared to admit. If Damian wanted to find out what was on the other side there really would be no way of stopping him.

"Do you think he'll be able to do it, daddy?" Michael asked. "Do you think he'll be able to become a doctor like Alan and Monica?" Michael knew that they were his 'true' grandparents, but, as far as he was concerned they were only that by blood. He didn't dislike them, but he certainly didn't share the connection that he had with his real family.

"I do think he will, yeah… because he wants to do something important with his life, something that will help honor his mother's memory. When someone goes through something like that, Mike, there's not really anything that will stop the person from getting what they want. They'll keep on fighting for the dream that they made as hard as they can, harder than they ever thought possible."

"Did you do something like that when your mommy died?"

Sonny looked down. How could he explain it to the boy? Could he even explain it? Not only explain it to Michael, but explain it to himself. Adella… she died without him even being there. Maybe she died because of her broken heart. "I…"

"Hey, look who it is!" Mike, who had overhead some of the conversation, quickly interjected himself to take the heat off of Sonny. "What are you two doing here?"

"I don't know," Michael replied as he got up and hugged his grandfather, "daddy picked me up from school today and we came over here. When he's like this, I just do what he tells me, because it means I get to spend some time alone with my daddy, and I don't really get to do that too much."

Mike looked over at Sonny, who was also staring at him. Though they had their differences, they were still father and son. And Sonny recognized the fact that Mike made the save that he wanted someone to make, even if he wouldn't have admitted that he wanted someone to save him. Appreciative of what had happened, Sonny gave a slight nod of his head, which Mike quickly returned.

"Grandpa… do you have any cookies?"

"Do I have any cookies?" Mike asked. "Do I have any cookies! Of course I have cookies, Michael. I always make sure to have a batch ready just in case you come in, because I know how much you love them. But, maybe you shouldn't have any, you might spoil your dinner."

Michael looked over at his father, "Can I have some? Pretty please? Pretty, pretty please?"

Sonny found that his fortitude and his healthy eating habits that he tried to instill in his child were going to be tossed out the window, but he saw nothing wrong with it. After all, how many times did he really let Michael get away with it? "Just two, all right?"

"Why don't you go and ask Elizabeth to help you. They're fresh, so they're really hot right now and I would hate for you to hurt your hands. She's in the back." Mike gently patted his grandson on the shoulder before he ran off. With the two older men alone, Mike took a seat next to his son, "This is a nice surprise. The two of you rarely come in here together. It's usually Carly or Courtney."

"I haven't been making enough time for Michael lately. Morgan's just a baby, and while it might sound mean he won't remember that much. Damian's old enough to understand that I have a lot of things that I need to take care of, especially right now, and he's on duty for the next few days anyway. But Michael… Michael's old enough to remember, but not quite old enough to understand that I have to do these things for a reason, to help protect him is just one of them."

"No matter what anyone says, or what you feel, you're a good father, Michael. You love your children more than anyone else I've ever seen. I just wish that you didn't have to fight so hard to do it, just so you could be a better example than the person that you got stuck with."

"You recognize your mistakes, Mike." Sonny believed that Mike truly did wish to atone for the sins that he had committed as a father. If Sonny would ever give Mike the chance was up in the air, but the fault now rested completely on Sonny's shoulders, not Mike's. "There are plenty of people who don't think they did anything wrong, ever. Those people are destined to go to hell."

"Is there any particular reason you came here?"

Sonny shrugged, "Michael loves it here, because you're here, because sometimes Bobbie is here. I just wanted to do something fun with my kid for the evening before I took him home. He's getting older, Mike. Soon he's going to be old enough to really understand what's going on around him…"

"You'll just have to explain to him…"

"How can I explain what I do to him?" Sonny quickly cut in. "I can't even do it with Damian, who knows, who is old enough to understand. I can't put myself up like that. I can't make it seem like I'm this horrible person… because, I don't know, maybe telling it to my children means that I've accepted it myself."

"You're not a horrible person, son."

"But I do horrible things."

"And you feel them when you do. Sonny, I'm not going to say that I wish you did something else. I'm not going to tell you that there are not times when I'm kept up late at night because I'm expecting a phone call from someone telling me that you've been arrested, or worse… but that doesn't mean that you go out and do them for the hell of it. You're not Lorenzo Alcazar. You're not a cold blooded killer. You protect what you have, what matters to you and sometimes it means doing things that you wouldn't do otherwise. People force your hand, not the other way around."

"Sounds like you're trying to convince yourself more than you're trying to convince me…"

"Maybe… on some level… I am…"

Michael came back into the room, cookies on a nice plate. "These are so good!"

Sonny looked over and smiled once more, counting the cookies. "Hey, I thought I told you that you could only have two of those. Seems like you've got four. You're old enough to do the math, Mike."

Michael laughed after he took a bite out of one of the cookies. "I got two for me, and one for each of you. Here," the child handed a cookie to his father and his grandfather. Three generations of Corinthos men enjoying the same food product. "I'm glad we came here today, daddy."

"So am I, buddy," the older man replied, a glance over to his father. "So am I."

Port Charles Docks-

Sometimes the work that needed to be done made John Durant do something that he never thought he would do otherwise. Sometimes it made him use contacts that he wished he didn't have. But, taking down Sonny Corinthos had not only become a career goal of his, it was now something completely personal. That man had taken his daughter and his grandsons into his tangled web, and John was not going to allow Sonny to continually put them in the danger zone. Sonny may have been one of the most powerful people in upstate New York, but there was always a bigger fish, and that bigger fish would not take a second glance at killing innocent women and children. If John woke up one morning and saw the headline that the Corinthos family had been slaughtered he would never forgive himself.

The cold wind brushed upon his face as he waited by the dock, seeing the many boats that moved along. Some of them no doubt belonged to Sonny. He would deal with everything that Sonny owned in time, but, for now, he needed to worry about the matter at hand. It took a lot of yanking to get the person who was going to be by his side to come into Port Charles, but when John wanted something done he did whatever was necessary to have it done. No matter the cost. It was one of his best and worst qualities.

A boat continued to tread closer and closer towards the docks, until it finally stopped in one of the spaces where the boats docked themselves. The light turned itself off and he continued to wait, seeing the figure in the quickly dying daylight walk down the small ramp that allowed entrance and exit from the barge. Before long they were staring at one another, John staring down at the person, the person staring up at him.

"Do you have any idea how hard it was for me to come into this place? I had to stop doing everything that I had planned for weeks on end, just because you called."

"Well, I guess that's the price that we pay when we owe someone, isn't it, Miss McCall?"


	63. Forced Together

"Just Sam," the diminutive woman replied. "Don't call me anything else but Sam, all right?"

John snickered, "I can call you anything that I want, and you would have to do what I wanted you to do anyway. If I called you bitch, you would listen. Face it, girly, I'm basically your pimp, and you're my whore."

Samantha McCall had been many things in her life, but a whore was not one of them, and she prided herself on the fact that, no matter how low she sank in life, she would never take money for sex. Angered at the idea of someone believing that she had such low morals, Sam struck Durant across the face. But, not a slap as most woman would do. No, Sam knew how to protect herself. Her father, Cody McCall, taught his daughter how to do many things, defending herself was just one of them. She decked Durant hard in the face, so hard that he was taken back. "I should just get back on that ship and leave you here to rot, you bastard."

"You could do that, and I wouldn't be able to stop you. After all, you've done nothing wrong, have you?" John regained his composure. "But, someone close to you has… someone that you love very much. What's his name again? Danny?"

Sam stopped walking towards the ship and turned around, a horrified look on her face. "You wouldn't do that! You told me that you would find a way to make sure that he never got in trouble for that! I came to you because you were supposed to be the best, you were supposed to get him off and unhurt from his mistake!"

"I did exactly what you wanted me to do, Sam." Durant replied. "I helped your poor, helpless little brother get away with murdering your mother."

"He didn't mean to do it!" Sam quickly defended her little brother. "Danny's special, you know that. You've always known that. I told you that he was from the moment that we met. You met with Danny yourself, John. How can you even think for a moment of using someone that vulnerable?"

"I'm a lawyer. It's what I do." John walked towards her, only to stand behind her, right in front of the walkway back to her boat. "You see, Sam, one of the best things about being an attorney is changing things around. When someone has a strength, like you do with caring about your brother, we can turn it into a weakness. You care about Danny so much that you would be willing to do anything to protect him, wouldn't you?"

Sam looked into his eyes, her own filled with so much hate towards him. Why did he have to be the person that she went to? Why did she have to believe for a moment that he would want to actually help someone like her brother? Someone who was completely innocent. Yes, he killed their mother, but Danny didn't know what he was doing. Danny was special, he wasn't the same as everyone else. People like him were supposed to be protected. "There isn't a court in the world that would actually convict my brother of doing something like that. They would take one look at him, they would send him to a real doctor, and they would know that he couldn't have known…"

"You're right, people are sympathetic towards our impaired companions, but, if there's one thing that I know, Sam, it's that no matter how great their sympathies might be, people can always be bought, too. And, let's face it, I've got enough money to buy just about everyone a few times over…"

"You're a sick bastard."

"Again, I'm a lawyer, and I happen to be one of the best ones. I'm good at this game that I play, probably the best. There isn't a damned thing you can do about it, either. I thought you should know that."

"So what are my choices?"

"They're pretty simple, actually," John smiled once more, that all knowing devilish smile that he seemed to personify so well without any effort. "You can get back on that boat and sail away, and I won't tell anyone that you were ever here, but I can make one simple call and I can have that brother of yours put away for the rest of his life in a maximum security prison. Let's be honest with one another, the people in their love to take advantage of the weakest person… and Danny's just dumb enough to actually bend over to pick up the soap if someone knocked it out of his hands. Do you want that for your brother, Sam? Do you want to deal with the guilt that would come from knowingly putting your brother in a situation where he was going to be constantly objectified. You've told me time and time again how much you love Danny, how much you want to protect him, how he's your little brother and the only member of your family who ever accepted you for who you really are. Time to be the big sister, don't you think?"

Sam's body tensed with rage and pain, her hand balled up into a fist. She could do something, she could hurt him in so many ways, but it wouldn't solve anything. She couldn't kill him, she didn't have it in her, and, if she killed someone like Durant, she would eventually get caught. Slowly she realized that she didn't really have another choice, that all she could do was accept whatever it was that he needed her to do. Her hand eased up, although there was a very visible trail of blood that ran down, her nails digging into her skin enough to cut it. "What do you want me to do?"

"That a girl," Durant moved away from the boat, knowing full well that he had gotten what he wanted. Sam was his now, to do with what he wished. "I came to this town for one reason and one reason alone: I wanted to destroy Sonny Corinthos and his right hand man, Jason Morgan. Have you heard of them?"

"Of course I have, everyone's heard of them, even people like me who are out at sea most of the year." She looked at him, "Do you really think that you can take down someone like Sonny Corinthos?" It was her turn to grin at him, "John, I know that you have this ego problem that you can't seem to shake off, but, really, I think you've bitten off more than you can chew this time."

"Maybe I had, if I would have been going at it alone. I need your services, Sam. Let's face it, out of all the people that I know, you're the best at what you do."

"When it comes from you, it doesn't sound like much of a compliment."

"It shouldn't be. If I didn't need you to do things for me from time to time, I'd throw you in a jail cell so quickly that your head would spin. But, you have your uses, and they are just enough to keep you around from time to time. Let's just say that certain things about my mission here have changed since I've been in this town. Other factors that I never took into consideration have gotten my attention, and I can't have my attention diverted too much, it makes for sloppy work, and I hate it when things are sloppy."

"What about sloppy seconds?"

"Don't play coy with me, Sam. If I wanted to have you, you know I would have you before anyone else. But… I've always had a thing for redheads."

"Lucky me."

"Back to the point, my dear. You are going to stay here in Port Charles for the immediate future."

"My boat isn't really meant to be a place where I can live for very long. A few days is fine, but after awhile I need a bed to sleep on…"

"And you'll have a bed to sleep on. There's a restaurant here in town, called Kelly's, above the restaurant are rooms that are available. I've already made sure that you have one in your name that's been paid for."

"If I didn't know better, I'd say you were coddling me."

"But you do know better, and you know that I don't coddle. I'm doing what is necessary. Go to Kelly's, ask about your room, and don't worry about getting in contact with me, I already know how to reach you."

"You do realize that you're going to burn in hell for doing this, don't you?"

"Hell doesn't scare me."

"That doesn't really surprise me. For all I know, the devil might be your father."

"Most people would say that I was just the devil's human form."

"Give me time, I'm sure I'll reach the same conclusion." Sam sneered. "So, am I just here to stay at a nice room above a dinner? I know I'm not going to get off that easily, no matter how hard I try."

"Quite astute of you, Miss McCall. I'm going to need you to sneak into Corinthos and Morgan's houses eventually, see if you can find something, anything, that will help me bring them down. But, for now, I want you to act like you're actually here to stay. You need to appear like you're not working for anyone. Establish a few connections, make it seem like you're a normal girl."

"I've been many things, but normal has never, ever, been one of them."

"Then it's time for you to spread your wings and expand your horizons. Sam, if you screw this up, if you fail me in any way, no matter how small, I'm going to find a way to put Danny away, and, if you try and stop me, I just might go one step further. After all, how many people are going to think it very odd if a handicap person manages to run in front of a moving vehicle going full speed?"

"You wouldn't…"

"Try me, and see what I would and wouldn't do. Now, if I were you, I think I would be going somewhere…"

Sam looked at him and tried to think of a way to get herself out of the situation, but she couldn't risk it. If it was just her own life at stake she would gladly do it, but she was thinking about her brother, her innocent little brother who had never done a thing wrong in the world except for be born with a deficiency that made him think things a little stranger than other people. Why was that something that people felt the need to punish? "You win this round…"

Durant watched her walk away and then turned towards the ocean once again, hearing the waves crash and smelling the salty scent of the sea. "This is just the first round that will go to me, and the bout will soon follow."

General Hospital-

The day had already ended, and her shift was coming to a close. She thought about leaving the shift again, but she knew that she couldn't do it. After all, it was the only time that she knew she would be able to see him, since he had to be there and, if she wanted to talk to him about something that was about his job he couldn't really deny her. And yet, every time that she tried to approach him he went the other way, or sent one of the interns her way instead of his way. What Damian didn't realize was that each time he turned the other way and made a hasty retreat it killed her on the inside. Why was he being so stubborn? Why couldn't he just listen? No matter how upset he was with her, didn't he know when she wanted to say something? Didn't he know her well enough to actually pay attention?

"Please say you'll do it!" Maxie begged one of her coworkers who was at the desk.

"Maxie, I can't. You know that we can't use the intercom system just for the hell of it. We could get in trouble."

"You won't get in trouble, and, even if you do get caught, I'll tell them that I was the one who made you do it. Besides, who is going to pay attention to a doctor being paged into a room? It happens all the time."

"But what if he's with someone else? Like Monica or one of the other doctors? What if they realize that we were just screwing around?"

"Come on! It's his birthday today! I just want to surprise my boyfriend… you care about him, don't you? He's your friend…"

"Yes, he is…"

"Then how come you don't want to do the same thing as me? I mean, I love him more than you do…" and, in realizing how stupid she was for thinking that he would have done something like that to her, Maxie only realized just how much she loved him, more than she ever thought possible. "I'll make sure to tell him that you wish him the best."

"I don't know…"

"I promise that once you do this for me I'll never ask for you to do it again. Just this once. This is our first time being together on his birthday, I just want to make it special…"

The woman thought about it for a second. She wasn't much older than either of them, but she knew how important love was. She'd been in love before, and did not wish to keep that feeling from anyone else. Looking at the schedule, the woman found the first empty room, "Here, go to this room and just wait, I'll page him in a few minutes. But remember, this is the only time I'm doing it for you."

"I know, I'll remember, I promise!" Maxie ran off towards the room that she had been told to enter and she waited, hiding far enough away so that he wouldn't see her waiting for him if he did look. Why was she doing it? Why was she waiting for him? Because she knew that she didn't want it to end like it was going to end. She wanted to try and salvage something about their relationship. It meant way too much for her to just throw it away.

A few minutes later, as promised, the woman's voice came over the system, paging him to the specific room. She felt her heart flutter when she realized that she was really going to have a shot at fixing her relationship. But how was she going to do it? That part she didn't know about.

More minutes passed before he poked his head inside the room. "Hello? Is anyone here?" Damian walked into the room, "If you're scared, it's all right, I'm just here to try and help you." He heard the door shut behind him, and he saw her. "Oh, it's just you."

"Damian… we need to talk. Please… just listen to me." Maxie looked at him and hoped that he would take her request, that he wouldn't throw it away.


	64. Don't Give Up

He should have known it was a trick the moment that he walked into the empty room. But, he had been taught about people who didn't necessarily want the help that they needed, people that would hide in a corner or actually end up running out of the room. They were rare, but they were there. Being Jason Morgan's unofficial nephew, Damian knew full well that there were plenty of people who really did not like the idea of being in the hospital, no matter how much they needed the help. It was only because he thought that he might have been dealing with that rarity that he didn't allow his common sense to tell him that he was walking into something that he did not want to confront. Someone who he didn't want to deal with. But, there was no way of avoiding it. Or was there? "Move out of the way, Maxie. Please."

"No," she replied sternly. "I am not going to let you leave like this. We're going to talk about what happened, Damian, and you're going to listen to me."

"What is there to talk about?" He asked. "You let me catch you in bed with another guy, and you seemed to enjoy it. I might not know a lot of things about relationships, because I'm a bit new to the game, but, last I checked, doing something like that was not a very good thing."

"Damian…"

"What, what are you going to say?" He quickly interjected. "Are you going to try and tell me that the person I saw wasn't really you? That it was your evil identical twin, Maxine, or something like that? Maybe you were possessed by some otherworldly force that made you think for a second that you could get away with being unfaithful to me. Face it, Maxie, you screwed up."

"Don't you think I know that?" While she may have tried to allow herself to fight back the tears that she was feeling so strongly in her heart, she knew that she couldn't. Maxie couldn't deal with the hate that he was directing at her. She only wanted him to keep on loving her forever, even if it meant not loving her in person. Maxie didn't want him to hate her. "I'm sorry, Damian! You have no idea how sorry I am…"

"Sorry isn't good enough," he replied, giving her the same cold attitude that she had given him the night before, only he was pulling back the punches. After all, he wasn't the one that was with another girl having sex in bed. To think there was a time when he wanted to save that part of himself for Maxie and Maxie alone. How could he have been so stupid? How could he have even thought for a moment that there was a chance that they could make it work? Why was he so blinded by his love that he threw his common sense right out the window? Because… as his father would have told him, that was what love did to a person, it made them think things that they wouldn't think otherwise. When it was good, it was really good, when it was bad… it hurt a lot.

"Why won't you listen to me?"

"Why should I listen to you?"

"Because we had something special."

"You notice the word that you used in that sentence? Had. Past tense, as in, we don't have it any more. Why don't we have it anymore? Because you threw it away."

"This isn't all my fault!"

"Oh, please, let's hear what you have to say about why it isn't your fault. Why I drove you to do something so horrible. I really would love to hear the reasoning behind your casual little romp with that guy…"

"He doesn't mean anything to me!"

"But I bet you made sure that he thought he did…"

She shook her head, "He knew that it was just because I was upset about you, about our relationship."

"You just couldn't deal with the fact that I didn't want to give you any, could you? You couldn't deal with the fact that I wanted to keep that part of me until I knew that I was with someone who I could be with for the rest of my life. You had to have someone inside of you, and it didn't matter who it was…"

"I do not deserve that!"

"You deserve so much worse than what I'm giving you, Maxie. Don't ask me why I'm holding back, but I am. I want to think that we meant something to one another, that might be it…"

"I loved you! I still do!"

"Is this how people in Port Charles show how much they love each other? By hopping into bed with someone else? Because, if it is, I sure as hell don't want any of that love…"

Maxie couldn't hold it in anymore. She was being attacked. It wasn't that she didn't expect herself not to be attacked, nor did she think that she didn't deserve to be attacked, but she couldn't handle the feeling of being under fire. Finally, she just blurted it out, "This is all your fault, Damian! Not mine! You're the one who had to tell me about how much you loved me, how much you cared about me and how Brook didn't mean anything to you… and then you come to the hospital and you comfort her! What did you expect me to think when I saw the two of you in the chapel holding each other like that?"

"I would have expected you to actually ask me what was going on! Then you would have realized that maybe, just maybe, something had happened, like, I don't know, maybe her mother was in the hospital and we didn't know how she was doing. We didn't know if she was dead or not. I realize that you can't understand how it feels to think for a moment that you might lose your mother, since you're too selfish to actually care about your own, but try thinking about it from my perspective for a moment, would you? Think about what I've lost, who I lost. I know what she was going through, I know what I needed, and what I needed then was a friend, not a member of my family who was going to try and convince me that everything was going to be all right when they didn't know. I didn't raise Brook's hopes, I just let her know that I was going to be there for her."

"I know that now," Maxie replied, hanging her head. "I know how much I screwed up, and I want to make it up to you. I don't want us to end it like this, Damian. Please, give me another chance. I believe you now! I believe that you don't care about her like that, I believe that you can be friends with her and not feel anything for her. I really do! Please… don't give up on us…" Maxie quickly rushed over to him and wrapped her arms around his waist, begging him, "Please… please don't give up on us…"

"I didn't give up on us… you did." He pushed her away, not wanting to feel the touch of her body on his, because it brought back too many memories. Memories which were once filled with joy and hope, but now were filled with nothing but pain. "You broke the rules, Maxie. And this isn't something that we can just fix by you saying that you were sorry that you did it and you were never going to do it again. You shattered something that can't be fixed, you tore out a part of my being that I thought would be safe with you. Sorry, but I don't know if I'll ever be able to look at you in the same way ever again. Or even look at you at all."

Crushed by the words that he said to her, and the fact that she knew that they weren't actually going to change, that he wasn't saying them out of anger, that he really meant them, she knew that there was nothing she could do to make everything all right. She truly had screwed up beyond all hope. Her eyes welled with tears again, and she heard the door open. "Wait!" She called, looking over before he could leave. "Do… do you still love me?"

He didn't give her an answer, although he did linger for a moment before he walked out of the room and away from the door. Faintly he could hear her sobs, her wails, and, while he felt the same amount of pain in his heart, he had to keep it inside, no matter how much it hurt him. The reason he didn't give her an answer was because he didn't know what it would have been. He wanted to say no, but he wasn't sure.

Kelly's-

"You always look like you're the happiest man in the world when they come to see you…"

"That's because I know how lucky I am to have them in my life," Mike replied to Elizabeth as he wiped the counter down. Business had slowed down to almost a crawl. The dinner rush was over, and only a few stragglers even managed to make their way into the restaurant, usually for something quick, or something to go. "After all the times that I've screwed up, I'm just fortunate that Sonny even gives me the time of day."

"He'd be a fool not to give you the chance to be in his life, Mike."

"No, Elizabeth, I was the fool for getting out of his life when I did. I was stupid, everything that I did was foolish. I let my own son be raised by that monster that Adella ended up with, the man who crushed so much of his spirit, who made him afraid to open his heart to people. All of that stemmed from what I did when he was a boy. When I came back into his life, I didn't think that I would actually have a chance at really being there, really making an impact with him… but, the little progress that I've made… I thank God every day for it."

"Have you ever tried talking to him?"

Mike laughed, "Of course I have. But, something you need to realize about Sonny is that when he doesn't want to listen talking is basically useless. He gets that from his mother. There were times when she would get so upset that nothing anyone ever said would get through to her. I think it was a defense that she utilized so she wouldn't have to show people how hurt she was. It worked… sometimes too well."

"Everyone has that part in them."

"Yeah, but my son is one of the people who believes that he has to let that part of his personality be the dominant part. If I could help him change, Elizabeth, I would, but I know Sonny… he won't let me help him. Not anymore. He's never going to trust me, not like he would have if I wouldn't have let him down so much when he was a little boy."

"He trusts you with Michael…"

"That's because I've shown him that I can be a better grandfather than I ever was as a father. Believe me, there were plenty of times when I would have to fight to even get a few seconds alone with Michael, let alone a day where I could take him somewhere without one of Sonny's men following me. Like I said… I'm fortunate to have that connection with any of my family. I think a lot of it had to do with Michael, and with Courtney, too. They showed Sonny that I can be a better person than he wanted to think I could be."

"If Sonny needed help to see that, then he's blind."

"Thanks… but I respect Sonny's position. If the roles were reversed, I think I would have acted the same way."

Port Charles was a small place, she didn't need to look around all that much to find the restaurant that he had talked about. She even asked someone, and they gave her pretty good directions. She stood outside and read the sign. Kelly's, that was the place that he said he wanted her to stay, and that was where she was at. Looking inside, Sam saw that it was almost completely dead, save for a few stragglers and people who were working. "Sometimes this is a little too easy," she remarked to herself. Small towns were either the hardest places to do a job, or the easiest. Sometimes people were just so good natured that they didn't care. Other times they wanted to know everything about a person, no matter what. Sam had to wonder what kind of town Port Charles was, and certainly hoped it would be easy. But, even on some level, Sam wanted a challenge. She hated it when things went a little too easy.

The woman walked into the restaurant and watched as the two sets of eyes looked directly at her. "Hi," she said softly, putting on her best smile. She refused to act for them, make it seem like she was some airhead who didn't know what she was doing. "I have a room that I checked out… under the name McCall."

Mike nodded, "I remember, someone called for you. Said that they would pay. The checked clear and I guess that's the only thing that matters, right?"

"I would hope so."

"Are you going to be staying here long?" Elizabeth asked, a genuine and heartfelt smile being given to Sam. She always wanted to welcome people into Port Charles, never wanted them to feel like they were somewhere that they wouldn't be welcome. Elizabeth knew how that felt, and didn't want other people to feel the same way.

"I just need to take care of some things around here. That's why I got the room, you know? So that I wouldn't have to worry about a lease, or some long contract. I could come, do what I needed to do, and get out. Plus, I'm close to a place where I could get something to eat. I hope you have good food here…"

"I think we can manage," Mike replied with a wink. "Do you have anything that you want in particular? I could give you a sample, on the house, just to see if you like it or not."

"A burger and fries would be great," Sam replied, inwardly thinking that it was all too easy. The people she was dealing with weren't going to give her much trouble. But, they weren't the target. Sonny and Jason were.


	65. The Morning After

Samsonlove- Sam is not going to be defined as good or evil, rather, indentured. Her part in the story will be quite small on the whole, but she has a reason for being around, although what side she will take, if any, will be left for a later time. Yes, John is an evil man. Bad, bad man.

Lansing Home, Morning-

Once more the beautiful woman shifted around in her bed, hoping to reach out and feel the warmth of her husband beside her. She remembered how good it felt the first time that they were together, and how much she missed it when they had broken up. It was necessary at that time in her life, because she knew that Ric had a darkness that she could not hope to turn into light, at least not by herself. She just didn't know who she could have asked, but, for whatever reason, she got the help that she needed in the form of an unknown family member who was willing to push passed all the hate that had been brewed up in the past. Someone who tried to accept Ric for who he was. A person who understood that the man had flaws, but that only made him more human, not the monster that his family wanted to believe he was. Elizabeth wanted to have someone like that, even if she didn't know it, and her prayers had been answered.

The first time that they were able to stay together, as man and wife yet again, she noticed how everything felt like it was right, how nothing was going to be wrong ever again. The first time she touched her husband in bed after they were remarried she knew that all the fears that she had about their chances would eventually melt away. Ric would not take a chance at destroying everything that they had, not again. Elizabeth didn't need to tell herself that over and over anymore, now she knew it, knew it in her heart and in her soul. But, that didn't mean that her problems were solved so simply, far from it, now she had to see what was going on, why her husband wasn't in the bed with her.

Slowly, her gorgeous blue eyes opened up to the world around her. At first it was little more than a blur, her eyes adjusting to what was going on around her, trying to take in the small amount of light that was piecing through the drapes, which seemed to be a lot more open than they normally would be, partially concealed by a shadowed figure. When her eyes adjusted just a little more, she saw what, or rather who, she was looking at. "Ric?"

Ric turned around from looking out at Port Charles from his viewpoint at their home. It wasn't Sonny's penthouse, but it wasn't that bad, either. "Good morning, sweetheart."

"What are you doing out of bed so early?" Elizabeth looked over at the clock. Sunrise had happened, but it had only barely happened, which meant that it was a lot earlier than normal. "Why don't you come back over here and get some more rest. You know that you can't think as clearly as you can when you're nice and rested up."

"I can't sleep, Elizabeth."

She finally propped herself up, sitting on the bed, hugging her knees to her breasts. She had seen him like this many times before, unable to sleep, consumed by his demons. She thought that he had gotten over it. What if Elizabeth was wrong? What if all the progress that she thought Ric had made in the prior months was just some sort of mirage? What if he really hadn't changed and she had fallen for the same tricks that she had fallen for the first time? "What's on your mind, honey? I want to help you, if I can."

"I don't know if I should tell you…"

"Ric, I'm your wife, you're supposed to tell me anything that is bothering you, because what bothers you ends up bothering me. I know how much you want to keep your pain hidden from people, but you can't do that anymore. You have to learn how to trust people. You have to learn how to trust me."

"I do trust you, Elizabeth… it's just… it's not my problem that I'm dealing with right now."

"Are you worried about what John Durant is going to do while he's here?" She knew that it was one of the most pressing ordeals on his mind. "Honey, I know how much you think he's going to take over, but you're also damned good at what you do. Nobody is going to just let you lose the position that you earned. Ever since Scott left you've really improved the quality of the district attorney's office in this town. And you make a great team with Mac and Lucky and the rest of the force. They'll try and keep you… I know they will."

"You're giving out too many popularity points for me, Elizabeth. But thank you." Ric didn't want to tell her the truth. They didn't really trust him, they respected him more than they did his older brother, but none of them, not Mac, not Lucky, not any of the other people on the force, could get passed the fact that he was Sonny's half-brother. Despite the fact that they were as different as night and day it was always going to haunt Ric wherever he went, another reminder of how much pain he had to endure just by being in Port Charles.

"I think you don't give yourself enough credit. People realize that you've changed, Ric. They might not admit it out loud, but that doesn't mean that inside they don't believe it any less. Trust me, I know what I'm talking about. If I can believe in your ability to change into someone who is goodhearted and kind, so can anyone else." She smiled, trying to comfort him and hoping that her words were enough. Sometimes they were, often times, however, they weren't. "Now, no more sad faces, all right? And no more worrying about Durant. Everything is going to be all right, I promise you."

"I just wish that was what I was worried about…" Ric replied softly.

"What else could be wrong? Did I do something wrong?"

"Of course not," Ric sat down on the bed beside her and wrapped his arms around her. "You're the best thing I have in my life right now, Elizabeth. You're the perfect example of how someone like me can actually find a person who will accept them for who they are, despite the fact that they might not be perfect. You didn't do anything wrong. You could never do anything wrong."

"Then what's bugging you? Please… just tell me. I want to know."

Ric sighed, "If I tell you, you need to promise not to tell anyone else, not even the people involved, all right? I gave my word that I wouldn't tell, but I think I should tell someone." Besides, if Ric was remembering the promise correctly, he only promised not to tell Sonny or any of Damian's immediate family, Elizabeth surely wasn't in that equation.

"I promise."

Ric nodded, "Damian and Maxie broke up…"

Elizabeth gasped, "Why would they break up? They were so good together. I thought… I thought they would stay together forever."

"So did I, but it isn't going to be like that, not anymore. He said that he caught her in bed with another guy… he hadn't told anyone when I saw him, I don't even think that he was going to tell me, but he did. I don't know why he did, but he did. Elizabeth… I've never seen him so crushed before."

"He must be going through hell…"

"I know what he's going through," Ric stated. "At least somewhat. I know what it's like to lose the person that you love more than life itself. I lost you before, remember? I thought there was a chance that I would never get you back, and deep down I always hated that fact. I remember all the pain that I went through. I remember looking at myself in the mirror and I saw the same face that I saw on my nephew yesterday. The fact that he's going through that much pain and torment… it tears me up inside. I don't want to think that he could be going through something like that. Something so horrible. Pain like that… I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy."

"So what do we do to help him, Ric?" Elizabeth asked, wanting to do something for the boy, something that would help repay the debt that she thought she owed him because of everything that he had done for her and Ric. A small way to repay something so huge, but it was the only thing that she could think of at that moment. "Do we try and get them back together?"

"She cheated on him with another boy, Elizabeth," Ric again stated the fact. "As far as I'm concerned, she doesn't deserve to have a second chance with him if she's going to do something that stupid."

"But you don't know the whole story… I'm not defending her actions, but maybe she had a reason? Maybe she was drugged? Maxie's always been a little bit reckless, Ric. She overdosed once. When Damian came into her life she straightened out a lot, but what if she had some sort of relapse?"

"I… I never thought about that." Ric remembered, vaguely, hearing about such a thing. The commissioners daughter being a bad girl, it was amusing in its own twisted way at the time, when Ric wanted other people to feel the same kind of pain that he felt on a daily basis. "Even so… the only thing I intend on doing is being there for my nephew if he needs me. I just hope he knows that he can depend on me to be there for him."

"I'm sure he knows," Elizabeth placed a hand on his back, "after all, he told you before he told anyone else. That has to mean something, right?"

"Maybe not to him… but it meant a whole lot to me."

"Just do what you can for him, all right?" Elizabeth suggested. "And, make sure that you tell him that he can always come and talk to me as well. Don't mention that I know, I'll play it like I'm surprised, but just tell him that if he needs an extra shoulder, I'll always make time."

"I'm sure he'll appreciate that." Ric leaned his head against the pillow once more, looking up at the ceiling. For someone like that to go through such horrible emotional anguish… it just didn't seem right. How could someone so good be forced to suffer so much? Especially when… especially when people like him ended up getting a second chance at happiness. People who probably didn't deserve any more chances in life than what they got.

Port Charles Hotel-

John had gone through yet another sleepless night. The help that Samantha McCall was going to give him in his mission to destroy Sonny and Jason was not nearly as important as his personal problems. All those years, all those years that he could have had with a daughter were taken from him. One thing about the people that John had put away: in some twisted way they really did care about their children. It might not have been love in the traditional sense of the word, since John didn't believe that people that twisted could really understand love, but it was certain something that they would give their lives for. In some strange way, John even respected that, admired it. Because, unlike himself, they had something that they wanted to fight for. The future. John didn't think that he would have something like that, ever. He was already an old man, and he never had a chance at making a family. Even if he did, he wouldn't be able to give them the time that they deserved, because his career was so demanding. That was one of the reasons that he didn't bother trying to start a family, because he knew that he would only end up hurting them in the end. John knew what it was like to have a neglecting father, someone who was too busy doing his own thing to actually pay attention to his children. In some way, John's job, his fame, was a way of making sure that he would get the attention that he had craved as a young child. People would know who he was, they would treat him with the admiration that he wanted.

But, while he didn't think that he could have been a good father, he didn't know that he had already been made a father, and, now that he did know, he wasn't going to allow himself to make the same mistakes that his own father had made. He was already missing out on some of the most important times of Carly's life. The time when she would have wanted to build a relationship with him. All of that was gone, and he needed to make sure that he got it back, because it was important. He wasn't too late to start building a relationship with his grandsons, and if anyone was going to help him get in their good graces, it was surely going to be the children.

John walked into the main room of the hotel and picked up the phone, looking in the phone book for a specific number. Sure, it was early in the morning, but not too early. Had he even gotten any sleep at all, he would have been up and ready anyway. If she wanted to complain about him waking up, then she could complain all she wanted. John had a few things to complain about to her as well.

The phone rang in Bobbie Spencer's home. Although she was up, she could not help but wonder who would be calling her so early in the morning. Was it Luke, waiting to get some help on yet another scheme? Or maybe it was worse, like something bad had happened to her family. She looked over at the pictures on the counter. Pictures of her family. Her children, Carly and Lucas, her grandchildren, Michael and Morgan, a picture of Luke and Laura, separate ones of Lucky and Lulu, all the people that mattered to her, well, almost all of them. The phone continued to ring. Finally, Bobbie reached over and grabbed the phone, "Hello?"

"Good morning…"

"John?" Bobbie didn't want him to be the one that was calling her, but it appeared that she had no choice in the matter. "What the hell are you doing calling me at my home? Don't you think that you've pestered me enough."

"Not nearly enough, I'm afraid."

"I should just hang up on you right now."

"But if you did that you wouldn't hear what I was going to tell you, and believe me, this is something that you want to hear…"

"I'm listening."

"I don't believe you, you know. I don't believe anything that you've told me about her. I know the truth, I know that she's mine and I'm going to tell her today. No matter what happens, by the end of the day she's going to know that I'm her father."

"John, you can't do that!" Bobbie yelled. "You can't tell her that you're her father, it's going to destroy her."

"She'll get over it. After all, once she finds out I'm going to make sure that she knows that I'm always going to be there for her. I'm her father, I'm not going to abandon her… unlike some other people that we won't mention."

"I did what I had to! You abandoned me first! I would have kept her… we could have been a family together! Why do you have to ruin this?"

"It's payback, my dear. Payback for what you put me through, what you kept from me… I just thought you should know that you had your last day with your daughter thinking that she only had one parent. Now she'll know that she has two. Have a nice day." John snickered and hung up the phone.

On the other end, Bobbie heard the line go dead. Her hand was shaking, trembling under the weight of the situation. She didn't want Carly to know. But what was she going to do about it?


	66. Feeling Something

Corinthos Household-

Sonny was working up a storm in his kitchen, also known as his safe haven. If there was one room in his entire house that he knew was his and his alone, it was the kitchen. After all, Carly couldn't do anything as far as cooking went to save her life unless it was the simplest thing, like throwing a pizza in the oven or putting something in a microwave, and even then she somehow managed to screw it up from time to time. Michael was too young to cook anything, although he would occasionally put something in the microwave as well, or the toaster, or pour himself a bowl of cereal. And Damian… if there was anyone who came close to matching Sonny's culinary skills in his family, it was his oldest child, but regardless, Damian wasn't a hundredth of the cook that Sonny was, he just knew how to boil water, which still put him leaps and bounds above Carly and her aptitude for the craft. Maybe, one day he would teach the boys how to do the things that he could do. After all, Sonny wasn't going to be around forever, no matter how much he thought he was going to be around. Mortality was a fact of life that even Sonny Corinthos had to respect, had to fear, and Sonny's mortality certainly wasn't as secure as other people, nor was the mortality of his family.

Carly, still dressed in her nightgown, walked into the kitchen, feeling her bare feet on the cold tile, the cloth of her nightgown sweeping behind her like the train of her wedding dress. A beautiful wedding dress, like she had always dreamed of having when she was a little girl. When she was young she would dream about having everything that she would have ever hoped for, but that was the dream that everyone had. Nobody expected to have that dream come true, and almost nobody ever thought that Caroline Benson would have a chance at making herself into something, not with all the hell that she had gone through in her life. She was at the bottom of the gutter, financially, and everyone figured that it was where she would end up staying. How Carly relished the idea of having all that she could have ever hoped for, everything that she didn't have once upon a time. A family that loved her, more money than she knew what to do with, no matter how much she tried to spend it. For her, life was good. For the most part, at least. There was still something that she didn't have: a father. A real father. Not the adopted one that had 'raised' her, at least in the technical sense of the word. Not a father-in-law, like Mike, who loved her as much as a father could, but her honest-to-God dad, the one who gave her the physical traits that obviously didn't come from her mother.

Although it was still on her mind, Carly had given up on the quest to find her father. She had accepted the fact that she would have to take what she had, after all, it was more than enough. More than most people had, that was for certain. Carly took a strong whiff and let out a pleasurable sound. "It smells like you're making something wonderful, Sonny."

"Do I ever make anything else?"

Carly grinned, "Easy there, Mr. Corinthos, I wouldn't want to be pushed out of the kitchen by your ego. Yes, Sonny, you're a wonderful cook, the best that I've ever seen, I bow to your superiority." Carly quickly curtsied in front of her husband, gripping the edges of her nightgown with her hands as she lowered her body. "There, are you happy?"

"Merely content," Sonny retorted, turning his attentions back to the food that he was cooking. "I didn't have anything that was taking up my time today, so I wanted to make sure that Michael got a good breakfast before he went off to school. It's the most important meal of the day, you know." He'd seen the commercials, complete with dancing fruits and eggs.

"Leticia could have made him something, and if not there's always cereal."

Sonny shook his head, "Michael eats too much cereal, Carly. That's not a real breakfast, that's the breakfast that neglectful parents give their children because they don't put them in front of everything else. They don't find a way to cook breakfast for the most important things in their life. Sometimes it can't be helped, I know that, I understand that, but I refuse to be one of those parents that lets his children ingest cereal time and time again… I want Michael to know that he can look forward to having me make him pancakes, bacon and eggs as often as I can."

"Sonny," Carly walked behind him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders, feeling the heat that radiated from the skillet that was barely a foot away from her fingers. The hot oil from cooking the bacon popped onto her index finger, causing a slight burning sensation that was gone a second later. "Michael knows that you love him, but he also knows that you have a lot of things that you need to take care of. You've always told him that, no matter what, no matter how busy you are, you'll always love him, and he knows that."

"I just want to show it to him," Sonny flipped the bacon over with the spatula. Two pieces, because he couldn't have the boy eating too much bacon, it was good, but it wasn't exactly good for him, health wise. "You know what it's like, Carly. To wake up as a young child and not see your parents there, to know that they're probably too busy sleeping off their night of sheer drunkenness. To not hear those simple little words that made the world seem a lot less scary, to not hear them tell you that they loved you before you went to school…"

"You let Michael know that you love him every day. Even when you're on a trip, you make sure to call every morning before he goes to school. Sonny, you might not be perfect, but you're a damned good father, everyone knows it."

"I guess I just want to keep my reputation then."

Carly finally let go of Sonny when she heard another pair of feet walking towards them. Turning around, she saw that it was the boy in question. She quickly put on a smile that wasn't nearly as artificial as it could have been. After all, there was nothing wrong, and Michael was the center of her world, along with his little brother. "Hey there, Mr. Man. Look at you, all dressed up and ready for the day."

"I wear the same thing to school every day, mommy," Michael pointed out. His school had the uniform mandate. At first it was almost kind of cool, but it quickly became stupid, especially when he went on school trips and saw the other kids that were able to wear whatever they wanted. But, Michael understood that his parents put him in the private school both for his own protection and because it was one of the best places to get an education. They wanted him to have a future, so that he could try and aim for something big like his brother. Michael wanted that, too. If he wanted to be a doctor was something that he hadn't decided yet, but he knew he wanted to go to school and get an education.

"You're still the most handsome boy in the whole school when you wear that uniform."

"You're just saying that."

"Hey, give me a little credit here. I'm your mother, I think I'm entitled to certain gushing rights…" Carly took his hand, "Now come on, your daddy is making you a big breakfast so you don't have to worry about being hungry right before lunch. Sit at the table, I'll get you a glass of orange juice."

"Morning, daddy," Michael called out to Sonny as he sat in the chair.

"Hey, buddy. You know, your mom's right, you look like a million bucks in that uniform…"

"Maybe I'll start wearing suits like you. You always look like you're dressed nice."

"I think you're a little too young to be dressed like me, Mike," Sonny replied as he put the bacon on the plate next to the pancakes, reaching over and cracking an egg in a bowl and quickly scrambling it up. When it was purely yellow, Sonny poured the contents into the skillet. "Your breakfast will be ready in a few minutes."

Michael looked around at his parents, smiling at his mother as she placed the glass of orange juice onto the table, right by his side. To appease her, Michael quickly took as large a gulp as he could before placing the cup right back on the table. Carly continued to look at him, as if she was transfixed by his presence. In a way it was comforting, but in another way it was somewhat scary. There wasn't anything wrong, was there? They weren't putting on an act to make him think that everything was okay when there was really something that was wrong… they'd done it before, but he let them know that he wasn't a little kid anymore, he could deal with the problems that they were facing, he didn't need to be shielded. Granted, they didn't really believe him, but that didn't make his statement any less true.

The boy knew that he was witnessing something rare and special, a moment where he had his parents alone, completely to himself. Once upon a time it was something that he would always covet. He loved Morgan dearly, but the baby was still too small to do anything but distract the two of them from him. It wasn't necessarily jealously, it was just more of an inconvenience. But now, with Damian, Michael had another member of the household who was just as important to him as anyone else. And he wanted his big brother there. It wasn't possible, but that didn't stop him from wanting it.

"All right, Michael," Sonny had finished cooking the breakfast and put the food on the table right next to him, "dig in, and make sure you tell me how it tastes, because if I did something that you don't like I want to make sure that I never do it again."

"Daddy, you're the best cook in the world, why would you make something that I didn't like?"

"It could happen, Mike, just tell me. Don't be afraid. You won't hurt my feelings, I promise."

Michael nodded as he stuck the fork into the pancake, tearing at it until there was a sizable chunk of the fluffy object to enter his mouth. Michael tasted nothing wrong with the pancake, if anything, it was one of the best things that he had ever tasted in his life. "This is great!"

"I feel neglected," Carly muttered.

Sonny chuckled and walked over to the microwave. "Do you really think that I would just make breakfast for Michael and not for you?" He popped open the cover and pulled out a similarly cooked meal, although Carly liked her eggs over easy. "I made your food first, because I wanted to make sure that Michael got his right when it was ready, plus, I didn't know when you were going to wake up, so I put it in the microwave to make sure it stayed warm."

"I'm getting old food?"

"Carly… it's been in there for ten minutes, tops. I know you, you'll eat just about anything as long as it isn't ice cold, and sometimes even if it is."

Carly threw him a mockingly dirty look. But, she knew that there was truth to what he was telling her. She really would eat just about anything, especially if it was Sonny who did the cooking. "I'm only eating this because I don't want to see you cry if I don't."

"I appreciate the attention to my feelings…"

"Daddy?" Michael interjected into his parents' conversation, because he had something that he felt necessary to say, or at least ask. "Can I go see Damian at work later today, after school?"

Sonny and Carly both looked over to the boy, but it was Sonny who spoke, "Buddy, he's going to be home in a few days, and then he'll be here for most of the week until he goes back. I'm sure it can wait…"

"All right…"

Carly reached over and touched his hand, "What did you want to see him about, sweetie? Did you just want to tell him hello?"

Michael shook his head, "Yesterday, before I went to school, I saw him in his room, it seemed like he was dealing with something. He wasn't smiling, at least not the same way that he usually smiles. I just wanted to try and see if I could do something, see if there was a way to know if he was all right. You don't know anything about it, do you?"

"I don't, no," Carly may not have hated the boy anymore but she didn't really get involved in his life, either. When it was necessary, she would step in, but she wanted to give him the space that he probably requested, and she didn't mind for one minute being the type of person who was only there for her stepson when he needed it. At least she was there sometimes.

"I'm sure he's just dealing with a lot of things, Mike," Sonny spoke in that tone of voice that seemed to make it appear like he knew what he was talking about, even if he didn't. That confident tone that filled people with assurance. "Your brother's a lot like your Uncle Jason, they want to stop everyone from feeling bad about themselves, they want to stop people from being hurt, so they'll go out of their way to make sure that, no matter what, the people who need them know that they have someone there for them when they need it."

"But what happens when they need someone to help them with their problems?" Michael asked. "If they're helping everyone else, who do they go to for help?"

"The people that love them," Carly replied. "Sweetie, if he's going through something and he knows that he needs help he's going to ask someone that he loves. He has you, he has the rest of his family, he has Dillon, and he has Maxie. Trust me, if there's something that's bothering your brother, he's going to find a way to deal with it. Look at who his father is… the most stubborn man alive."

"I resent that comment. I checked on the internet, I'm only the sixth most stubborn man alive."

"Then you must have done something to go down in the ratings, because last time I checked you were number one." Carly snickered, but shifted back to her serious, motherly tone, "Honey, you don't need to see him, I'm sure he's fine."

Michael was silent, he wanted to believe his parents, he really did, but the boy wasn't so sure that he could. After all, the way that he had seen his brother look… it was such a painful look.


	67. Losing Confidence

Note: I didn't announce it, but yeah, yesterday was a story break for the holiday. Since there was no GH on, it kind of made sense. There's no GH on today, either, but, dammit, I will give people the fix that they want myself.

Samsonlove- Sorry about your computer, for a second I thought I was going to have three reviews, and it made me happy. Alas, it was but one. Nonetheless, it came up as three, which makes it seem like more people are reviewing my story, and this pleases me, although more people actually reviewing would please me more, but such things cannot be expected, merely hoped for. Yes, Sonny being a 'father' on the show has become an extreme rarity these days, which is horrible because Sonny is without a doubt at his most loveable when he is acting like a father. But, since I understand this about Sonny, even if the writers don't, I will choose to illuminate it. Yes, Durant is bad. Very bad.

Story-

General Hospital-

Even on the best of days it was very hard to get any sleep during the time when he wasn't directly on call. Those light hours that he would be able to rest on a cot somewhere, closing his eyes and drifting into something that wasn't really sleep, but was close enough to keep him energized so he didn't have to depend upon caffeine and other things to keep him going. That was one of the first rules of being an intern: sleep when you can. The problem was that he couldn't really sleep, at all. Even when he wanted to, the only thing he thought about was her, about the way that she hurt him, about the way that he could have possibly hurt her.

Damian had done a lot of thinking during the hours. There were patients that were coming in, some that were even admitted to the emergency room. A baby with an abnormally high fever, an old woman with chest pains that people feared was a heart attack. Those were dealt with as quickly as possible, and none of them ended up being anything big. The baby was just sick, and was given antibiotics, the woman had an extremely bad case of heartburn that proved itself to be more worrying than fatal. None of the problems were dealt with by him directly, which was good, because he wasn't sure he was going to be able to help people in the way that he would have if his mind wasn't being pulled into every possible direction.

The young man leaned against the nurses' station counter as he waited for the handout that he needed, the thing that would tell him everything that he needed to know about his patient, a woman that wasn't much older than him, pushing her mid-twenties. What was wrong with her was unknown, it was his job to find out, but in order to better equip himself for the task he needed to have the basic information that had been gathered by her previous doctors, both at the hospital and elsewhere.

He saw it on the counter of the nurses' station, something that shouldn't have been there… a pin, but not any pin. Her pin. Maxie's pin. Something that she almost always put on while she was doing her job at the hospital, a little piece of her own individuality, placed there because she didn't want to be just another part of the crowd, part of the wave of girls that did the same job that she did over and over. As always, Maxie wanted to make an impression. That was one of the things that he loved the most about her, the way that she valued her strengths more than anyone that he knew.

People accused Maxie of a lot of things, and sometimes they were legitimate accusations. After all, she did do a lot of things because she buckled under peer pressure. She almost died because of it. She was put in a horrible relationship with a boy that didn't ever truly love her because of the gain that he gave her in her popularity at school. Maxie was just like so many other girls before her: misguided. And it wasn't something that was wholly female in character, males did it as well. How many times had he seen it back home in Los Angeles? His own family members that fell in 'love' with the popular cheerleader because they had something, something that the other person sorely wanted. It was just part of life, a part of life that he didn't want to deal with. But how could he get away from it? Everyone wanted it themselves. Not necessarily popularity, but they all wanted something. Something that they would give everything that they had to obtain. For Damian, that random factor was comfort. He would give everything that he could possibly give if it meant that he was able to have some sort of comfort, the comfort that had been stripped from him when his mother died. Maxie probably wanted the same thing… and in the relationship that the two forged with one another they found it. But they no longer had what they had found. It was gone, completely gone.

Had it really been his fault? The question had been asked many times in his head, and he wasn't sure of the answer. Sometimes he would answer yes, other times it would be a no. In the end he thought that he just could never truly know. After all, he should have been honest with her… but what was there to be honest about? What was he supposed to do, call Maxie up the moment that Brook so much as touched him? While it was true that he had told her about the two of them going to eat a meal together that was something else, something that wasn't so urgent. Nobody could have anticipated what had happened to Lois, because nobody wanted anything to happen to her, not like that. For Maxie to hold him at fault for only looking to do something that any human being with a soul would do was so beyond shocking that all it did was infuriate him, and he hated being angry at her. Even now, after everything that she had done, he didn't want to be upset with her.

How could he not be upset with her, though? After all, it was she who had taken the circumstances that she didn't understand and twisted them into something that was completely different from what it truly was. Yes, they were hugging, and maybe it looked like he was giving her more attention than he should have, but they were in the hospital. Worse, they were in the chapel at the hospital, usually a place where people just didn't randomly hook up. He wished that she would have known that, but she didn't. She didn't know it because she didn't bother to pay attention. She didn't care.

Would he have reacted differently? Damian would have liked to believe that he could have, but he didn't know the answer to that question either. If Kyle had been alive, if he wouldn't have died, how would he have reacted to everything that he would have seen, even if the two of them were just sitting across the table from each other talking? Would he have thought that it was something that was completely different? Probably. That wasn't to say that Damian bunched Kyle and Brook Lynn in the same subtype, because he didn't. They were completely different people, with Brook being decent and Kyle being some sort of evil creature spawned from the depths of hell. The point was that Kyle had a connection to Maxie that Damian would have undoubtedly felt intruded upon his own relationship with his now ex-girlfriend, and he wouldn't have been very kind towards either of them if he would have seen them together.

Did that excuse the actions that Maxie had taken? Of course not, because what she did was so much worse than anything that he would have ever done. It was one thing to be with another person, just being seen with them, it was another matter altogether when they decided that they were going to have sex just to piss him off, and he knew now that the whole reason that Maxie had sex with that boy was to infuriate him. It was the only reason. Well, not the only, but still the chief reason. Even if Maxie didn't expect him to walk in on them while they were in the middle of their romp she still did it because she felt like she needed to 'get back' at him for what he had done, that implied wrongdoing that made everything they had seem like it meant absolutely nothing to her anymore.

"Doctor Corinthos?" The woman at the desk held the requested information out to him, her eyes scanning his as she tried to see if he was even looking at her, or paying attention. She spoke a little firmer, but not too loud, "Doctor Corinthos?"

It was at that moment that Monica came walking around the corner. Since it was because of her insistence and belief in his prowess as a doctor that Damian be admitted into the internship program at such an early age she also knew that if anything happened it would be on her head. She saw that he wasn't paying as much attention as she would have liked one of her interns to pay attention, so she made her way over to him and touched his shoulder as gently as possible. "You know, it's a custom to actually pick up a file when someone gives it to you… just something you should think about for the future."

The touch did more than the words, which he probably would have continued to ignore, so caught up in his thoughts, or more precisely his turmoil. But, upon feeling the soft hand of another on his body he realized that he was drifting too far away for his own good and quickly came back to the tether of reality. "I'm sorry, Dr. Quartermaine. I just…" he tried to think of something that he could say that would explain why he was doing what he was doing, but there was no legit answer. "I wasn't thinking, my head was up in the clouds. I'm sorry."

Monica gave a smile that she hoped was comforting enough. Yes, they were supposed to try and be stern, but the problem with that was if they didn't act human enough they would just end up having their charges run away and try some other career. Being a doctor was demanding, but if they scared away all the potential people who actually had the calling then they wouldn't have anyone to take care of them when they got old. Monica didn't want that. "You're an intern, you have a much more demanding schedule than the rest of us… we might be the ones that people turn to the most, but you have a bigger workload. Don't worry if sometimes you lose yourself in your thoughts, it happens."

"I shouldn't keep my patient waiting, though. If there's something really wrong with her… I just should go and make sure that there isn't." Damian grabbed the folder and gave a nod of appreciation to the woman that had handed it to him. She looked at him with a wary eye, as if she was trying to figure out what was going on in his head. The chances of her finding out just what was going on in his head were quite slim, since he didn't even know what was going on in his head, not really. "Thank you for understanding…"

"Wait, Damian, please," Monica called to him and watched as he stopped, halting his progress at her command. It was nice to know that she still had that kind of sway around people. Being the chief of staff had something to do with it, who cared if she was name dropping? If it got the job done that was all she could have hoped for. "Are you all right?" She too attempted to probe his mind, find out what was bothering him, because it was obvious that something was. Even with all his problems, which she was sure that he had because of his last name and his connections to people, dangerous people, he still managed to keep as focused as one could hope, even more than she would have hoped. Damian was one of their best, one of their most dedicated. She truly felt that he was up there, that he could make a big name for himself. "You seem to be really distracted right now."

"I've just got a lot on my mind. Personal things. I know I shouldn't bring them to the workplace, but I can't help it." It didn't help that the two somehow managed to blend together. His workplace also happened to be the place where he saw Maxie the most, especially after he started the internship. "I'll try and keep them separated, honest."

"There isn't anything that you want to tell me, is there?"

"No, Monica, nothing."

"Nothing about Michael, or Dillon, or Jason?" The last one was the one that she wanted to know the most about. Michael was her grandson, by blood, Dillon was her nephew by marriage, and Jason wasn't even her biological son, but he was probably one of the most important people in Monica's life and she wanted to know if there was something wrong with him. He may not have really considered her his mother anymore, but she would always consider him her son.

"Everyone's fine, Monica, I promise. What's bothering me… it's something that's bothering me and me alone. You don't need to worry yourself about it. Now, I need to go. If you need me for something that doesn't involve my personal life, please don't bother to ask. I'll probably be available." He walked passed her, hoping to make haste towards the room, but he was distracted once more, distracted with trying not to act that distracted and he ended up bumping into one of the other nurses. "I'm so sorry… are you all right?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Don't worry about it." The nurse, the same one who had helped Maxie out the night before, watched him leave. She saw Monica looking at him, and she remarked, "For a guy who just celebrated his birthday, he didn't look too happy."

Monica found the comment to be completely out of place. "What are you talking about? His birthday's in August." She knew because she studied the files of all the interns, to get a good grasp on who they were as people, what they would be good at and what they needed to work on. It was because of that study that she knew when his birthday was. "Who told you that it was yesterday."

"Maxie did…"

"Why would she think that… she should have known…"

"All I know, Doctor. Quartermaine, is that yesterday Maxie wanted to talk with him, but he was busy and he was working so she had me call him on the system and have him go into an empty room so that she could surprise him. I know that I wasn't supposed to do it, but she was so insistent upon it that I didn't want to let her down. I'm sorry, I told her I would never do it again, and she understood."

"No, no, you didn't do anything wrong…"

"Good."

Monica tried to think about what was going on. Why was it so important that Maxie spend time with him the night before? Why did she have to do it in such a sneaky way? Was it Maxie's birthday? Wasn't that closer to Halloween? "Is Bobbie coming in today?"

"I don't think so," the same nurse replied, walking into the station and checking the schedules on the computer. "No, I'm sorry, she's actually off for the day. Why?"

"I just thought I would talk to her, but I can do it later…" Monica got a page on her pager and looked at it. "I have to take this. If Bobbie does come in, for any reason, please let her know that I want to speak with her, all right?"

"I will."

On the other side of the hospital he looked at the door. He could see inside the room, because of the small windows that were on each side that gave him a look inside, and he saw her. But he didn't want to do it. He didn't think that he could. Sucking up his doubts, Damian opened the door. "Hello, Miss Torres, I'll be your doctor today…"

"But you're so young."

"I'm an intern, not a full doctor."

"Do you know what you're doing?"

"I've been trained in medicine for years, I have a pretty good grasp at it. But, if you want a more experienced doctor I won't hold it against you."

"What do you think I should do? Do you feel confident enough in yourself to help me?"

Damian looked at her. On most days he would have said that he did, but he wasn't dealing with most days. He was dealing with something else, something that made him answer in another way. "No, Miss Torres… I don't. I'll get someone else to take this… I'm sorry."


	68. The Good and the Bad

Queen of the Elven City- Aww, don't cry for him. Okay, if you want to cry for him go ahead, I won't stop you, but he's stronger than that. He'll bounce back again. It's what he does. Yup, what he does. Although maybe he won't be able to bounce back from that one… what's that mean? You'll just have to wait and see.

Story-

Kelly's-

There was something to be said about being able to sleep in a bed that wasn't constantly moving. Sam had gotten used to life on the brig, of course, but that didn't mean that she didn't appreciate the finer moments where she wasn't being surrounded by little more than the constant moving water. To say that it was something that she did not love, however, would be a very incorrect statement. Sam McCall loved the ocean, always had ever since she was a little girl. There were a lot of things that happened in her life that would always make her wonder about her place in the world, but she knew that the ocean would always be there and it would always welcome her with open arms, no questions asked. Even if she didn't have the kind of training that she did, the kind of upbringing, Sam believed that she would have found a way back to the ocean no matter what, it was a calling. She should have been a mermaid.

Getting out of the bed, the young and very beautiful woman walked over to the window of her checked out room at Kelly's. There, she looked out at the world around her. The world of Port Charles. How innocent everything looked from her vintage point in that room. The way that she looked at everything, it seemed like it belonged on some sort of movie or something, the picturesque little town where people knew who their neighbors were, where they didn't need to lock their doors. But they should have locked their doors. They should have lived in fear. Sam knew that while the appearances may have been deceiving, the people knew better. How could they not know that there were people like Sonny and Jason running around their town? Sam didn't even live in Port Charles. She had no intention of ever doing it. She was only there because she was forced into servitude to save someone that she loved more than anyone else. Her brother meant the world to her. If Danny wasn't so special she would have done everything that she could have to make sure that he would have been on the boat with her, but she couldn't do that. Sam knew that her brother wouldn't be able to handle it, and it was because of that knowledge that she made sure she didn't let her yearning for a connection with him override her desire to keep him safe.

How quickly did it change? That was something that Sam wondered. How fast did the people of Port Charles realize that their little safety bubble was gone? How quick did they lock their doors and huddle their children in the moment that they heard something going on, that first gunshot? Those were the things that Sam wondered about the most, how quickly everything seemed to change without any sort of provocation. And it was in those moments that Sam knew Port Charles had something that other towns like it didn't have: the danger. Sam liked danger, but she also knew when she was in too much over her head, and, Port Charles had the kind of danger that Sam tried to avoid whenever possible. Her kind of danger involved battling the forces of nature. Mother nature was more dangerous than a gun, but also a lot easier to deal with.

Some time later, Sam walked down the stairs into the restaurant, showered and changed, looking like the type of person that would turn heads no matter where she went. Maybe that was one of the reasons why she loved the sea so much, because it involved her being alone, and when she was alone she didn't have to worry about being accused of being too attractive. How many times did she have to push someone off of her because they thought that a woman who looked as beautiful as her just had to be easy? It was a double edged sword… beauty. On the one hand it was worth everything that it came with, on the other it wasn't worth any of the trouble at all.

Elizabeth was working at the front as she often did. She had thought briefly of Sam before she closed the night prior, and even when she walked into the place to start working earlier in the morning. Elizabeth always thought about new people, about who they were, what they wanted to do in the town, and if they were going to make it out the same person that they were when they came in. For Elizabeth it was something that she had dealt with personally. After all, how much did she hate being in Port Charles to begin with? All the trouble that she gave her grandmother, even when she knew that deep down Audrey was just trying to help, and yet she resisted.

"Good morning, Sam," Elizabeth called out to the woman as she finished walking down the stairs. "I hope you managed to sleep all right…"

"Yeah, I slept fine. Elizabeth, right?" She watched as the other woman nodded and smiled. "Sorry, I'm pretty bad with names, especially before I've had my morning cup of coffee. Sometimes the brain just doesn't start until it has a pick-me-up. You know what I'm saying?"

Elizabeth grinned, "We're not getting any younger, are we? Sometimes we need a little help from something to keep us going. Caffeine might be a drug…"

"But it's a drug that we really can't be without."

"I agree completely," she poured a cup of hot coffee into one of the cups and placed it on the counter. "Cream and sugar are right there, if you need them. Can I get you anything else? Something to eat? I know we might not look like it, but we make some pretty good breakfasts here."

"I'm not really a breakfast person, Elizabeth."

"How do you know that? You've never even tried one of them here. Come on, first meal for the new tenant is on the house… got to break them in and everything."

Sam looked at Elizabeth and wondered how a woman could possibly be that perky and not render herself into some sort of diabetic shock with her own inner sweetness. It was… quaint… but at the same time it was pretty damned annoying. Sam didn't like the overly happy bouncy people, they angered her. Trying to see the brightness around the world when everything that was there was laced with something dark and forbidding. People like Elizabeth were only destined to have some sort of downer, and when that happened they would need someone to pick up the pieces. "I guess I can't say no to something like that, now can I?"

"I don't think you can, really." Elizabeth grabbed a nearby menu and opened it, "Whatever you want from the breakfast menu and you got it. Mike, the guy that you met last night, he's a great cook. And he's in the back just waiting to make your first full day in Port Charles one of the best days in your life."

"Could you give me a minute, please? I need to decide, there's a lot on the menu," and, while she wouldn't admit it, all the food looked very delicious. Maybe Elizabeth was right, maybe it was worth eating breakfast, especially when it was free.

"Yeah, sure… actually, I see someone that I need to talk with outside. I'll be back inside soon, all right?"

"Easy there, Mary Poppins in training," Sam muttered, "One day you're going to overdose on that sugar you put in the medicine…"

Lucky was standing outside. When he saw Elizabeth he couldn't help but smile. She always put a smile on his face, and she always would. They distanced themselves from each other, but they would always be connected.

"Officer Spencer, is this part of your beat?"

"Considering that I can walk the entire space of Port Charles in less than two hours, from one end to the other, I think it's safe to assume that everywhere within city limits is part of my beat, even some areas outside of it."

"I'm sure we all feel a lot safer knowing that we have someone like you protecting us. I know I sleep easier…"

"You give me too much credit, Elizabeth," Lucky gave her a playful hug. Sometimes it was hard to touch her, like he knew that there was a part of him that would always want something more than what he had. Now was that time. She was with Ric, she was happy with Ric. Lucky understood and respected that, but he wanted something more for himself. He hadn't been with anyone since Summer was killed, and he didn't know if he would ever find the person that would make him feel even a fraction of the feelings that came through when he was around Elizabeth.

"Were you just passing by, or did you want to talk to me about something? Maybe grab a quick bite to eat…"

"I did the nightshift, I am pretty hungry."

"Come on in then." Elizabeth took him by the hand, "We got a new tenant last night. I want you to meet her, maybe you can help show her the ropes." Elizabeth didn't think about any sort of romantic connection between the two of them, although it was impossible to ignore the fact that they were both very nice looking people.

Sam had looked over her shoulder at the two of them as they were talking, although she figured that they were together, especially the way that they were touching each other. Sam hadn't been in love for a long time, either. Maybe never, aside from the love she felt for her brother, which wasn't the same kind of love.

"Sam, this is Lucky. He used to live up in the apartments…"

"I'd suggest that you find a way to make sure you can get into the only bathroom up there as soon as possible. When the morning comes and everyone tries to get inside at the same time it's a madhouse…"

"I'll make sure to keep that in mind," Sam replied. "Thanks for the warning. So… how long have you two been…"

Elizabeth quickly struck the idea down, "We're not together, Sam. We were, once, but we're just best friends now. Lucky was my first love, and I'm just glad that we were able to remain as close as we are now."

Lucky gave a shy and somewhat pained smile. He agreed with Elizabeth, but at the same time he still wanted something else, something more than what he had. "Elizabeth is one of the best people in the world, Sam, you should do everything that you can to make sure that you stay on her good side."

"What, are you telling me that someone like Elizabeth has a bad side?'

Lucky snickered, "Believe me, she does. I've been on that bad side more times than I would care to remember… and let me tell you, it isn't pretty. She likes to use her nails…"

"Lucky!" Elizabeth playfully smacked him on the shoulder, "Now you're just giving her some ideas, bad ideas. I really don't use my nails for anything other than tapping on the counter when I'm bored."

"You should use them for something else, Elizabeth," Sam advised. "Believe me, you'd be surprised at how often a good pain of nails can come in handy." She had personal experience, that she didn't want to talk about.

"Lucky, why don't you have a seat?" Elizabeth had learned that sometimes she could pry into the lives of people when she wasn't necessarily supposed to, and she refused to do that again. It had happened with Damian. In a lot of ways, Sam reminded her of him, at least in the ways that weren't specific to gender or personality. "Do you know what you want yet, Sam?"

"The pancakes and eggs…"

"I'll make sure to tell Mike just what you want. Lucky, your usual?" The man nodded and so she went into the back, leaving the two of them alone.

"So, Lucky," Sam began, "what do you do in this quaint little New York town?"

"I'm a cop."

"A cop…" Sam knew that she needed to pay special attention to Lucky now, because there was a chance that she could have been on his bad side. "Well, I guess that you're one of the good guys, then, aren't you?" Sam didn't believe that, at least not necessarily. She knew how quickly power could corrupt people. She'd seen it before.

"Yeah, I'm one of the good guys."

"Good to know."

Port Charles Hotel-

"Max!" Lois called through the door as she was doing her hair. Sonny's bodyguard had not left her side since he was ordered to stay with her, and she appreciated that, even if it made her feel a little uncomfortable.

Max placed the comic book that he was reading in his jacket pocket as he walked inside. "What is it, Lois?"

"Tell Sonny that I'm ready to check out of the hotel, will you? I'm sure I can do it on my own, but I want him to know that I'm leaving…"

"Are you sure about that?"

"Max… please, I'm sure. After all, I'm not the type of person who needs to be coddled. I appreciate everything that he's done for me… but I really need to face what's bothering me." Lois needed to return to the mansion and deal with her demons. It was the only way that she was going to get over it.

"I guess if you're certain, there's nothing that I can do. I'll make sure to tell Sonny, but, Lois… if you need me…"

"Thank you, Max, but I'm a big girl." Lois looked at herself in the mirror and wondered just how big of a girl she really was.


	69. Last Rites

Queen of the Elven City- Perhaps you should be scared. After all, this is Port Charles we're talking about, and, with me at the helm, there really is no limit to what could happen. I'll ease your woes a bit by telling you that a body bag will not be necessary… more than likely.

Samsonlove- Kyle was just forgotten on the show, much like Maxie was before Kirsten took over the role. Poor Robyn, she deserved so much better, she did. As for the Lucky/Sam coupling… I thought about it when I wrote the chapter, but I haven't decided one way or the other. Since they're both going to have a relatively small part in the story overall it doesn't seem very important to have either of them establish any sort of romantic ties. Odds are nothing will happen, but you never know. And how do you know she was making friends?

Corinthos Household-

There was one thing that Sonny appreciated about his little penthouse location. Not the fact that he seemed to be above everyone else, although some would claim that it was because of that. No, it was because of the privacy that it gave him, knowing that he was up there only with the people that he cared about, the people that he trusted. Sonny wasn't living in the lower levels of Port Charles, where people could betray him and take out his heart. For all intents and purposes, Sonny Corinthos appeared to be something like the man who didn't care about anything that happened to him, but it was a lie. The things that impacted Sonny hurt him more than they would anyone else. Some accused Sonny of not caring at all, Sonny would accuse himself of caring too much. The smallest things could make him question everything, they could make him go over the edge where he was a danger to not only himself, but the same people who he would always try to protect.

There was always a part of Sonny that wondered if he should have told Damian about that part of his past. He had kept secrets from the boy before, secrets that he thought were for his son's own good, but Sonny had seen how keeping secrets from Damian didn't have the same impact that he would have liked. It wasn't the child's fault, Sonny knew that for a fact. The way that Damian reacted when he felt betrayed mirrored Sonny's own actions under the same circumstances. Sometimes the similarities were striking, to the point of being scary. But it wasn't something that Sonny was keeping from the boy to protect him, or maybe it was. However, there was always the chance, always the chance that something could happen, that whatever made Sonny break down like he did would somehow impact his own child. Michael didn't have to worry about it, because he wasn't Sonny's by blood, and Morgan was too young to really deal with anything of the sort… but Damian was a young man, older than Sonny was when his son was conceived. He seemed to have a strong grip on reality, on himself, but there was always the chance that it could give way underneath him. Sonny didn't want to see his child suffer because of the mistakes that he made.

If there was one thing that kept Sonny away from telling his child about his mental malady it was the fact that Sonny wanted to appear to be some sort of all powerful being in front of the boy. Egotistical and unnecessary, Sonny admitted and understood that, but it didn't change the fact that Sonny didn't want the boy to know that he was so weak and vulnerable. There were only a few people who were 'in the know,' and they were those that directly needed to know. It was different with his family, his sister, his wife, his best friend… they weren't his children. They didn't need a strong father figure. Maybe Damian didn't either. After all, he had managed pretty well without an actual father in his life for twenty years, but now Sonny was in his life, and while he didn't baby Damian like he did his other two children he still wanted to put the blinders on from time to time.

It was nice to have the house to himself, he liked it. Sonny knew that he wasn't truly alone, that there were people right outside his door making sure that if anyone hoped to spring some sort of attack on him they would protect him with their lives. Sonny expected the best from his men, expected them to be incredibly loyal, and, to their credit, they were. But, they had become such a part of his life that it really did feel like he was alone even when they were there, like an extension of his being, eyes that would report to him what they saw so it made it seem like they were his.

The mob boss and dedicated husband and father paced through the house after he left the balcony. So many memories of his family rested in each inch of the penthouse. The corner where the Christmas tree was, the tree that they decorated as a family, a complete family for the first time ever. The only thing that was missing was his mother, but he knew that it would never happen. Instead, he kept Adella's memory close to his heart, and on his mind always. The mantle, where pictures of his family were adorned above the hearth. They hadn't taken one yet, not together. Too much was going on, especially now that his boy was busy trying to help people, help them in ways that he couldn't be helped when he was a child. But, Damian was represented next to the rest of them. One of the pictures he had gotten from Elias and Victoria was the picture he took for his senior class yearbook. When Damian saw it, he grimaced. Sonny laughed to himself as he remembered the story that was told, the story about how the boy had tried in vain to make sure that he never made it into the yearbook as long as he was in school but they ended up forcing him to take it because they wanted at least one picture of him before he left, one picture where he was alone, a reminder of everything that he stood for, the woman who had created him, who died leaving a very important print on his soul. Damian may have hated the picture, but Sonny loved it, and was appreciative of the fact that he had it. One day, they would take a picture together. All of them. A family, a whole family, and it would be put where it belonged, in the center.

Jason walked in, unannounced as always, the same look that he had on his face almost all the time. "Where's Carly at?"

Sonny turned around, having picked up the picture a moment before his best friend walked in. When Jason arrived, he placed it back where it formerly was. "She's out with Morgan. Carly wanted to spend some time with him and give Leticia a little break so she could do something for herself." It was unlike Carly to actually care enough about the nanny to give her a break, but Sonny was certain that Leticia appreciated it. How could she not? "Why, do you need to talk with her about something?"

"Actually, I need to talk with you, I just didn't want her to come barging in and asking questions. You know how Carly gets when she's worried about something. The last thing we need is for her to take a bat to Durant's apartment and threaten to bash his head in."

"She only did that once…"

"And you don't think she would do it again?" Jason asked.

Some would take his comments for sarcasm, but Sonny was not one of them. He knew that everything Jason Morgan said was entirely serious, even when it sounded like it wasn't. Well, almost everything. There were rare times when Jason allowed himself to be more than the stoic right hand man, mostly around the children. Jason had been the best uncle that Michael and Morgan could have hoped for. Sonny wished more than anything to have a chance to return the favor, and he thought he would have been able to, but it wasn't possible. Another reason he was glad that Alcazar was dead. Not only was he a threat to Sonny's direct family, but the extended family as well. "Point taken, but I want to think she wouldn't…"

"That's your opinion. I know Carly. The first thing that she always does when she's worried about the people that she loves is she tries to find some way to make everything better, but it doesn't work out that way. Instead of finding a way to fix everything she ends up finding a way to make everything worse, and then we have to try and fix it." Jason added the 'we' because he didn't want to make it sound like he was the only one who tried to fix their problems, although, if one wanted to be perfectly honest, it was true.

"Carly isn't what we need to worry about, and I don't think that you actually came in here looking to talk about her. What's wrong, Jason?"

"I just wanted to know what you were thinking about doing in regards to what was formerly the Alcazar territory. I know that you've got a lot on your mind, but it doesn't negate the fact that what's going on there is a problem, something that we really need to deal with as soon as possible."

"There's no problem with that, Jason. We've taken care of it. We talked to the Sandoval's and we've told them to make sure they pass the message along. Unless your stock as the enforcer has somehow managed to go down since our meeting with him I highly doubt that anything has changed."

"The longer we sit on that problem the worse it's going to get. I know you think we can handle it, and right now we can without any trouble but that's why I think we should do it before it gets out of hand. If someone finds out what happened, Sonny, if someone finds out that your son killed Alcazar they're going to try and strike, take it for themselves… and maybe they won't attack Damian directly, or you, but there's no guarantee that they won't find their way over to Los Angeles and take down his family."

"We've got a threat that is right in our backyard right now, Jason," Sonny reminded Jason, just in case he had forgotten. "John Durant is a problem, right here, right now. Anything involving Damian and the Alcazar territory is not in our face…"

"But it can be…"

"I can't deal with something that might happen, I need to face facts. The fact is that right now it's taken care of, which means I can't worry about it. Don't you think I have enough on my plate? Durant is looking for whatever he can get from anyone around him about us… he wants to take us down and he's cruel enough to actually find a way to do it."

"Sonny…"

Sonny shook his head and tried to clear his thoughts. There were many times when his emotions got the better of him and he needed to take a moment to collect himself, now was such a time. He realized what he had said, and how it sounded. "I'm sorry that I snapped at you like that. You know how much I value your opinion as a friend and as a partner, you know how highly I think of you. I appreciate everything that you're trying to do. Damian's only been here for a few months and I know that you didn't like him or think that he was being honest with us when he came…"

"I just didn't want to see anyone get hurt. Not you, not Carly, not the boys." Did Jason regret the way that he had treated Damian at first? Yes. Would he have done it again if the same thing had happened once more? Probably, because Jason dealt with everything that he could think of, and, as much as he hated to admit it now there was a time when he thought that Damian was capable of doing something that would hurt the people who Jason loved. In hindsight it was foolish, but at the moment it happened… Jason had no regrets for his actions.

"But we've all managed to make peace with everything that we thought could have happened…"

"Yes, we have. It doesn't change the fact that we're dealing with something big, Sonny. What happens if we act too late? Elias, even at his best, wasn't good enough to actually fend off what could come, the attack that people could send his way if they find out that he's in control of some pretty powerful territory. Not just in the states, but in the world… they won't stop to kill Damian's family, all of them, anyone who gets in his way. How do you think he's going to react when he finds out that everyone he cares about has been slaughtered… and that we could have done something to prevent it?"

"I won't let that happen…"

"Then you need to do something about it right now in order to make sure that it doesn't happen." Jason's advice as sound and to the point. If Sonny didn't it take it… there was no telling what could happen, but Jason was almost certain that the end result wouldn't be pretty.

Sonny nodded. Though Jason continued to push on an issue that he would have much rather ignored it was for the good of his entire family, and the family that Sonny would always be indebted towards. Without further hesitation, as he felt he had hesitated enough, Sonny walked over to the phone and dialed a number. "I need constant protection around my son's grandparents' home in Los Angeles. You have the address. No, I don't care how much it costs. Make sure that they don't know what's happening, and don't let it get out. Your best men, for as long as it's necessary. Thanks." When the call ended, Sonny hung up the phone and turned his eyes onto Jason, "Satisfied?"

"Yes."

"Good." Sonny didn't mind throwing away his money. After all, he had made sure that he had enough money to do anything that could have come up, no matter what it was. That was why he was able to pay for Lois's needs, even though they were no longer necessary. "Can we deal with the Durant problem now?"

"I don't know what to tell you about that, Sonny. We still haven't found anything about Durant that will let us take him down, just that one tape that we can't hope to decipher." Stan was a good man, one of the best in his field, but there were limits to his abilities, and, if there were no words, only a door that opened and closed in a hurry… nobody could do that.

At that moment, Stan knocked on the door, which was still partly open from when Jason came in minutes before. "I know that this couldn't come at a better time, but I've got another tape that you should probably listen to…"

"Does it have anything we can use?" Sonny wondered.

Stan could only shrug, "Either John Durant knows that we're listening in on his conversations in his room, or he's just really good at making sure that nobody can understand what's going on. Listen…"

Stan, Sonny and Jason all listened to the tape that played. It was obvious that John was talking to someone, and more than talking, John was making a threat to someone, threatening to do something that the other person obviously didn't want them to do. But, like Stan said, there wasn't anything that was said about what was going on specifically, and the other voice was so soft that it was unable to make out. When the tape ended, Stan hit the stop button.

"I need you to trace the call," Sonny ordered.

"Easier said than done. The Quartermaine's know that stuff like this can happen at their hotel, and they've got a pretty good security system which makes it hard for me to punch through their defenses."

"Find a way, Stan!" Sonny barked. "Or I'll find someone who can. Is that easy enough for you to get motivated?"

"Yes, I'll make sure that I get on it right when I get back to the equipment. I'll give you a phone call as soon as I can."

Sonny watched Stan leave and then he walked over to the mini-bar, he needed a drink. "Jason… when this hits the fan… I don't know what's going to happen. So, I need you to do something for me, all right?"

"Name it."

"Take my sister out tonight," Sonny looked over. "Make Courtney feel like she matters. Because… there's a chance that it could end up being the last time you ever can." Sonny swirled the drink in his hand. Time was like the drink, so easy to drain and disappear.


	70. Crumbling

Outside of Kelly's-

Carly waited for her mother to come. They had scheduled a visit together because Carly needed to see what was going on with her. They had spent such a long time being at one another's throats, with Carly unjustly hating her mother for something that Bobbie had no control over. Carly would never be able to truly make up for the mistakes that were made, the way that she broke up Bobbie's married with Tony, the way that she forced Lucas to not have his parents together, but, they managed to find some sort of common ground, and Carly would always be appreciative of that. Still, if she could do something to tip the scales back towards the center instead of having it be completely leaning against Carly's side she would do it. Bobbie had helped her many times in her life, including, in some strange way, by giving her up. At first, Carly may have hated the fact that she wasn't 'wanted' by Bobbie, but she understood now that Bobbie did want to keep her, Bobbie wanted her more than anything else in the world, but there was only so much that a mother like Bobbie could do for a child. Carly deserved the chance that she would get with some other parents. She deserved the opportunity for stability. While it was true that Carly didn't get that, that Carly got a home life which was just about as bad as anything that Bobbie could have given her there was no way that the girl could have known that when she gave up the baby. All Bobbie knew at that time was that she was giving her baby up to what could have been a better life. It had taken Carly a little while, but she had eventually realized that it really was done for the best reasons, with the best of intentions. Bobbie couldn't be faulted for doing the same thing that every mother would probably think about doing.

In some ways, it mirrored the mothers that were directly involved in her life. If she didn't have Jason with her there was no telling what she would have done with Michael. The way that the post partum struck her, made her want to avoid touching the baby at all… if that had happened and she didn't have someone that she could trust at her side what would have happened? Deep down she didn't want to admit the answer, but she knew that it was there, she would have felt forced to do the same thing that her mother had done with her. She would have been forced to give Michael up, because she wouldn't have been able to offer him anything that he deserved, not even the love of a parent. Carly owed so many people for so many things, and Jason was, like Bobbie, at the top of that list. But, she understood that each time she tried to do something that would help Jason she almost always made it worse than it had been. Despite the best of intentions, and she always had the best of intentions, or at least she thought she did, Carly made a mess of everything. A mess that rested solely on Super-Jason's shoulders. But he could handle it, because Jason could handle anything.

However, Carly wasn't the only mother that was mirrored by Bobbie's prior predicament. No, the same thing had happened with that lady, Damian's mother. Ana-Maria? A small part of Carly would always feel sad when she walked by the picture that was hanging above the piano in one of the parts of the penthouse. After all, Ana-Maria had given Sonny something that Carly had thought was hers. She had given Sonny his first child, his real first child. Morgan was supposed to be that child, in the technical sense of the word, and Carly would have been completely content knowing that she had given Sonny the one thing that he wanted the most in the world, a child that was his, both in the emotional and physical sense. She didn't even have that much time to savor her victory, though… because he came and swooped it out of her clutches. Before she would have blamed Damian, and his mother, for taking away something that was, by all rights, hers. But she wasn't that person anymore. Yes, there would be some inherent animosity, but she wouldn't act upon it. She had done that before, and the secret that they shared together would always loom over their heads. If it got out there was no telling what would happen. The damage that would be wrought from that small piece of information coming out.

Carly looked at the time on her watch a she continued to wait, periodically looking down at Morgan in her arms, who was busy playing with a rattle, bashing it against the table that they were sitting at. Morgan was safely bundled up in layer upon layer of clothing in an effort to keep him from catching any sort of cold. He'd gotten sick before, really sick… and she could have lost him if it wasn't for the fact that he had a half-brother who could give him something that he needed. There were things that Carly couldn't protect her children from, she acknowledged that and begrudgingly accepted it, but the things that she could keep Michael and Morgan from she would fight tooth and nail to keep them from, the things that hurt them, like germs and cold. Some people might look at the layers of fine clothing that was on her infant child and scoff, but Carly would only smile and know that, deep down, they would have done the same thing if it was their child and they were in the same situation.

"I figured that you might have decided to come on inside at one point or another, Carly," Mike said as he walked out of the restaurant with a hot cup of coffee, just the way that Carly enjoyed it. He knew the way that his family and friends liked their coffee, having served at least half a dozen cups to them during his time working as the manager of Kelly's. It was a job that he didn't think he deserved, a chance to create some stability in his life where there had once been none. Bobbie had done him a great service, one that he figured he would never be able to repay her for. "But, I can't have you getting cold out here…"

"Thank you, Mike," Carly said with a smile, but out of the corner of her eyes she was looking for Bobbie to appear on one end of the walkway or the other. Still, there was nothing. "I'm just waiting for my mother."

"You finally managed to get some time with her?"

"I had to tell a little white lie in order to do it," she said after a brief nod. "I had to tell her that Morgan really missed his grandma and that he wanted to see her. It's probably true, but I can't really know one way or the other if he's actually missing her." Carly looked down at the child, who was transfixed by Mike, his arms reaching out towards the older man. "But, I'm pretty sure that's a signal that he missed his grandfather."

"Come here, champ," Mike placed the coffee down on the table and quickly grabbed his grandson, hoisting him up with a soft grunt. "Someone's sure growing up quickly, pretty soon I'm not going to be able to pick you up, you're going to get so big! But that's not a bad thing, no it isn't. We all want you to be healthy and happy…"

"That's what I want for my mother, too…"

Mike looked over at Carly. "What are you saying? Do you think that Bobbie's sick? Carly, I know she hasn't told you much about what's going on with her, but I know that if she was sick, if she was really sick, she would find a way to make sure that she told you. She's not that kind of person, she wouldn't hold that kind of secret from you."

"I don't think she's sick either, Mike, but what about happy? I'm not so sure that my mother is happy right now. Every time I've seen her over the past few days there's always been some underlying sadness that she tries to keep hidden from everyone around her. Sometimes it works, sometimes people don't notice, but I do… because I can't help but notice when she's hurt. I've caused that kind of look on her too many times in the past to not know what it looks like."

"Bobbie's always got a lot going on in her life, Carly, you know that. She's the head nurse at General, after all. She might have lost some patient and it was just bothering her. She's been doing the job for a long time, but that doesn't mean that she doesn't feel when she loses someone that she was trying to save." Mike doubted that any doctor, no matter how trained they were in the craft, was really able to accept it when they lost someone. They were just too human not to feel some sort of grief when one of their charges died. At least that was what Mike thought, and he hoped it was true.

"I know when my mother's finished working, though. At least for the most part. When I see her it's usually on days when she isn't working, that way I don't keep her from something that she would need to do… that's how I know that the way she looks… it isn't work related, unless there's something happening at work that she doesn't talk to me about. She usually answers me when I ask her what's wrong, she'll usually tell me… but she hasn't lately, and I'm getting worried."

"Well, it looks like you'll get the chance you want to ask her again, Carly," Mike saw Bobbie turning around the corner. "I'll leave the two of you alone. Just let her know that if she needs me to help her in anyway at all she doesn't need to hesitate in asking. And, you might want to take Morgan back for a little while, that way your lie doesn't seem that bad." Mike winked at Carly, handing the baby back to his mother.

"Hello, Mike," Bobbie said in her cheery voice as she walked passed him.

"Bobbie, how are you?"

"As good as can be expected for a woman of my age, I suppose…" it was an excuse, a way of deflecting any of the interrogation that could have followed. She didn't want anyone to know about the threat that John had made to her early in the morning. Didn't want anyone to know that he was going to make it his intent to tell Carly everything, no matter what happened, no matter who got in her way.

"Bobbie, you know you look as beautiful a woman half your age…"

"You're just saying that."

"Did it work?"

"I didn't tell you to stop, did I?" She said with a soft chuckle. "But, if you'll excuse me, I have something important to do. Our grandson wants to see me… and how can I say no to a face like that?"

"I don't know, I've never found a way. Do you want something to drink? I can bring it out in a few if you do…"

"No thank you, Mike. I don't want anything to drink right now." Even if she did she wouldn't say that she did. She wanted some time to be alone with Morgan. Was it selfish of her? Maybe, but she wasn't going to be faulted for loving her grandson as much as she possibly could.

"Look, Morgan, there's grandma," Carly turned the baby around so that he could see Bobbie. "Say hi to grandma, sweetie," she picked up his hand and made him mockingly wave, "Hi, Grandma!"

"There's my baby… the most handsome baby in the whole wide world!" Bobbie always loved it when she got to spend some time with her grandchildren. Now that Lucas was old enough to be away from her she knew that he really didn't want to spend that much time with her, and she didn't want to be the type of mother who forced herself on her children. Overbearing and intrusive. Besides, when they hit a certain age they really pushed away from their authority figures. Morgan was at the perfect age, the age where he didn't care what kind of person Bobbie was, all he cared about was getting attention. And attention he would get. "Look at you… I feel like you're a different person each time I see you. Soon you're going to be a completely different little man and I'll have to learn about you all over again…"

"Don't say that, momma," Carly said, "I don't want to lose Morgan like that! I want him to stay a cute baby, my cute baby, forever."

"But if that happens then what are you going to do when he wants to grow up? You'll miss out on all the good times in his life. You'll miss out on being a grandmother yourself…"

"I'm a little too young to be thinking about that, don't you think?"

"I wasn't even forty when you had Michael… I thought I was too young to think about things like that, too. They have a funny way of sneaking up on you."

"I don't want either of the boys to become parents at the same time you did…" Carly said softly, and then she realized how it may have sound. "Mom, you know what I mean, right? You know I didn't mean it as an insult towards you for having me so young… I just…"

"I know what you're talking about, Carly. Don't worry about it. I want the same thing for them, too. I want them to be old enough to provide for their children, I want them to be mature enough to actually handle the responsibilities that they would find themselves dealing with…"

"I don't know if anyone can really be old enough to accept the responsibilities that come when someone's a parent for the first time. Everything seems to pound on them, every little mistake that they might make becomes so huge…"

"Those people end up becoming the best parents, though," Bobbie commented. "They're the ones who take such a vested interest in the wellbeing of their child. Some people aren't really ready for that." She thought of Tracy and the way that she just sort of accepted the fact that she was mother to her children, but that was it. She never really acted like a mother to Dillon or Ned.

"There you are…"

Bobbie felt her blood run cold as she looked behind her shoulder to see Durant standing there, a smug look on his face. Carly, also less than thrilled to see the man, sneered as he came their way. "Don't you know how to take a hint? I don't want to see you…"

"Oh, but I think you do."

"John, just leave. Please."

"Why would I want to leave during such a touching family reunion?"

"Because this is a family reunion. You know, family. People who are related." Carly stood next to her mother. "My mother, my child, me… nobody else is around."

"What about your father?" John asked.

"What the hell are you talking about? My father isn't here, I don't even know who he is…"

"Carly…" Bobbie reached over and touched her daughter's hand gently. "I'm sorry… I'm so sorry…"

"Momma?" Carly couldn't understand what her mother was apologizing for, or why she looked so scared and hurt. "What's going on?"

"Why don't you give daddy a hug, Carly?" John asked. "Because, surprise… I'm him."


	71. Telling Time

Queen of the Elven City- Per your request, Damian is going to be in this segment and the next one. Okay, not because of your request, it just turned out to be that way… but hey, you got lucky, right? As for Dillon? Not so much. He's coming up. I'm going to write a part with him in it later today, and it should be posted before the end of the week. I think it will be good. I was very afraid when Dillon got into the accident, and then when he collapsed. I screamed at the television 'Precious Dillon, Do Not Die!' As loud as a could. Granted, it was more for the comedy, because if Scott was going to leave the show I would know… but it was still good.

Story-

Carly had been accustomed to having shocks in her life. It came with the territory of both living in Port Charles and being connected to the people who she was connected to. Most of the time it involved something about her husband or her best friend. They were going to be in some mob war, or Sonny was really hurt and he didn't have a good chance of living. He always beat those odds, and she believed that it was because he had so much to live for that he never wanted to die. Sonny didn't want to leave everyone with the mistakes that he had made, not until he had a chance to fix them. The only problem with that was nobody thought Sonny made such horrible mistakes, nor did he have to fix them. He was doing what he thought was right.

But, Sonny wasn't the reason why she was so shocked. Far from it. Carly's shock came from her own life, which wasn't that rare in the overall scheme of things, but certainly happened less than being shocked because of what was going on around her family. The man in front of her, the evil man who was looking to destroy her family… he was her father. John Durant was her father? Carly refused to believe it, refused to give in to the words that were coming out of his mouth. Instead, she could only sneer at him, "You're lying, you sick, twisted bastard. You're lying!" If she said it over and over again maybe it would make it true. Maybe it would make everything go away. Maybe… but probably not.

"Why would I lie about something like that?" John asked, hoping that it would have gone better. Did he love his daughter? Probably not, since he didn't even know her, but he knew that he wanted to start understanding her. He wanted to learn who Carly was as a person. He wanted to get a chance to know his daughter, that way he could say that he did love her. "I'm your father, Carly. You're my daughter. I didn't know about it until I got here and saw you. When I did see you I thought about how much you reminded me of someone, but it didn't hit me at first. Then I realized that you look so much like one of my aunts, you're a dead ringer for her, and then I knew… knew that you came from my bloodline."

"Stop it!" Carly screamed so loudly that Morgan began to cry in his grandmother's arms, the baby feeling the negative emotion that was seeping through the area and being scared beyond words at it. His mother quickly looked over to him and started to shush him, "It's all right, baby. Everything's going to be all right."

"Can I hold him?" John asked. "I've never had a grandchild before… and he is cute." Was it just John's sudden connection to Morgan that made him think the baby was cute? Probably.

"Stay the hell away from me, my children, and the rest of my family!" Carly ordered. "I don't believe you! I don't believe that you're my father, and I'm never going to believe it…"

"Ask your mother," John said simply. "After all, she may have been a whore in her time, but she always knew who was the one that gave her you. Didn't you, Bobbie? Didn't you always have an idea of who it was that had sex with you that time that created the young woman that is standing right beside us?"

"Momma…" Carly knew that Bobbie could solve everything. She could make him go away. She could tell him that he was full of it and that nothing was going to change. They weren't going to know who Carly's father was, and she was going to accept that. "Momma… please… don't lie to me right now. I need you to be completely honest. Can you do that for me?"

"Carly…" Bobbie looked at her daughter with pleading eyes. Trying to tell her not to press the issue any further, because the only thing that was going to happen was that Carly was going to get hurt.

"Don't do this to me, mom! Please… just tell me the truth. I want to know the truth."

"I'd like to hear the truth come out of your mother's mouth as well. She's never actually admitted to me that I'm your father, but she certainly hasn't made a very good case against it. Come on, Bobbie. There's no stand here, but this is still your moment of truth. What are you going to do? Lie about it, or tell the truth…" either way, she would lose… but how much she would lose was up to her.

Bobbie looked down at Morgan, who was still sniffling. It was because of her. It was all because of her. Because of everything that she had kept hidden from her daughter since the beginning. All the things that Carly should have known about her past, the things that Bobbie knew about but kept from her daughter. Why couldn't she have just been honest before it was too late? "I'm sorry, Carly…" she began with a light whispering tone, "but, he's telling the truth. John Durant is your father."

"Did you get some test done? Did you draw his blood and compare it to mine when he was at the hospital? That's what you did, right? You realized that he could have been the one, and you knew how much I wanted to know who my father was so you tried to do something that would make it all better… that's what you did… right?"

Bobbie shook her head, "I've always known that he was your father, Carly. Ever since you came out of my body I knew that you were his. You looked like him, you still do…"

"Stop it! I do not look like him…"

"Actually, if you give me a few minutes I can point out all the parts of you that look like me… if you want, that is."

"Leave me the hell alone!"

"But I just want to start building a connection with you."

"Listen to me, and listen to me good… you could be my father, you could be the man who helped create me, but that's it. That's all you're ever going to be to me, John… just the sperm donor to my mother's egg that ended up forming what I would become. You want to destroy my entire livelihood, don't you? You still want to destroy my husband and my best friend…"

"I just want to make sure that dangerous people are taken off the street. Now, I want to protect you and my grandchildren from that same amount of pain. The little boy… Michael, was it? I saw him at school once. He looked so happy playing around his friends at the kickball court. But I know that he's never that happy when he's not at school, because he's always going to be worried about what could happen, who could come and attack him…"

"You've been stalking my child?"

"Of course not, I just wanted to see him one more time before I came out and told you. I want him to consider me a grandfather to him."

"He has a grandfather! Mike is the only grandfather that Michael will ever need!"

"But he's not even related by blood…"

"Do you actually think that matters to any of us?" Carly wondered. "Family isn't made by blood, John. It's made by the love that people feel for one another, the way that they feel around each other. You could be my father, and you probably are… as much as it hurts me to admit it, but you're not family."

"If you give me time…"

"I don't want to give you time. Just stay the hell away from me! And I swear, if you take down my family, my real family, you'll be beyond dead to me. You won't even register on my meter anymore."

Bobbie was still in her own state of shock. It was so hard to think about everything that was going on. Her world was spinning around and around, like that song. It was only because of the fact that she was holding Morgan that she didn't topple over. But, she felt the baby yanked from her arms. "Carly…"

"Don't talk to me right now, mother," Carly said with her trademark amount of scorn and attitude. "Right now I don't even know how I feel about you. You lied to me…"

"I did it to protect you!"

"How did it protect me, mom? How did finding out like this protect me? I would have listened, I would have understood, but you didn't even bother to give me that chance, did you? I'll see you later. And please, neither of you follow me. I just need to sort this out by myself."

Bobbie wanted to say something, but what could she say? Anything that came out of her mouth would just seem like an excuse, something that she said because she wanted to make it seem like everything she did wasn't bad, that she had a reason for doing the things that she did, even when she didn't have a legit reason. Instead of making an excuse, Bobbie could only watch her daughter leave, a single tear rolling down her cheek.

"That was fun."

She turned around and shot daggers at John with her eyes. "You've ruined everything that I had with my daughter, John! I hope you're happy!"

John snickered, "It's like Christmas came all over again."

Inside Kelly's, Carly was still fuming. She wanted to look back at them but knew that she couldn't, because it would make the pain all that much more difficult to handle. Instead, she walked into the back. Mike was there, cooking, "Mike! I need you!"

"What's wrong?"

"Please… take Morgan for a little while."

"Carly, I'm working."

"Mike, please!" Carly hated to beg for anything, but when the circumstances were as such that she needed to do it she certainly wasn't above the action. "I just… I can't have him around me right now, because I don't want to scare him and my life is just… it's a mess…"

"What happened, maybe I can help…"

"You can help by taking Morgan. I know how this sounds, I know that it must put you out, but I wouldn't ask you to do this if it wasn't extremely important to me. Please, Mike… please…"

Mike looked into her eyes. He'd never seen her like that, never seen her so torn up by something that she looked like she was going to break. It was because of the sight that was in front of him that he knew he couldn't deny Carly her request. "All right, I'll just put the carrier on the counter, Elizabeth can help me watch him, and maybe he'll bring in a few customers…"

"Thanks so much, Mike."

"Carly… please…"

Carly moved her finger over his lips, effectively silencing him. "I can't talk to you about it. Not right now."

General Hospital-

He hadn't had another patient ever since he turned away the previous one, and he was all right with that. Damian didn't really want another patient, because it meant that he would have to worry about someone depending upon him, and, at that moment, he didn't feel like he could be depended upon by anyone.

Was he proud of himself for turning her away? Of course not. It was not something that a doctor should have done, even one who was busy training. He could scrub in during surgeries, but couldn't do anything. What he could do was treat people for simple problems, and he couldn't even do that. Not with his world the way that it was. Did he want to be that kind of doctor? The kind who couldn't put his personal problems aside long enough to help someone who actually needed help? Of course he didn't, but did he think that he would be able to avoid it? Not so much.

"Damian… can I ask you something?"

"Not if it involves what I'm going to have for lunch." He was in the cafeteria when he saw Monica. "I don't trust the mystery meat."

"Nobody does." In all her years, she'd never found out what was in the mystery meat. "But that's not what I need to talk with you about. Please, can we?"

"Of course…"

Monica sat down at a table across from him, "Did you turn away a patient today? The one you were going to see before I saw you?"

"Yes…"

"Damian… you should never do something like that… not without a good reason."

Damian thought about his reasons, and he knew that they were good, at least for him, but were they good for Monica and for the other people? Maybe not. "I thought my reasons were good…"

"It was a simple procedure, Damian," Monica replied. "You just had to look and see what was wrong with her, I know you've got the skills to do that. Now please, tell me what's going on…"


	72. An Odd Request

Queen of the Elven City- Yes, the old man was indeed an amusing person. Good thing he's gone, though. Being so mean to Dillon like that, bad old man. I would have threatened to take away his meds, yes I would have.

Story-

He thought about telling her. But what was the line that he could cross between student and teacher? Monica wasn't his teacher in the technical sense of the word, she wasn't an educator, but she still taught him a lot about what he wanted to do with his life. Like any good teacher, Monica Quartermaine tried to inspire him to reach for his dreams, attain his goals. She was always there with positive words to help him through the times when he may have doubted himself completely, but she couldn't do that anymore, could she? Because what he was doing was doubting himself not based on his performance as a doctor, but just on himself.

Still, there was that flickering hope in his mind, where he thought that things could go all right if he did tell Monica what was going on. He trusted her. Unlike his father, trust for Damian did come relatively easily, although he had seen the way that trusting people could lead to some extreme pain, which made him think that maybe, just maybe, Sonny's decision to keep people at arm's length wasn't as stupid as he thought. Even before he had been admitted to PCU and the medical program he had done some research. Monica and Alan were like legends, working at the same place for such a long time, inspiring so many generations. He didn't even fathom that he would have a connection to the family, but he did.

Yes, he trusted Monica completely, and would not hesitate to come to her with a problem that was not the nature of the one that he was dealing with, but the fact was that he wasn't sure about telling her anything. He had only told Ric, and Maxie knew, as well as Georgie, but that was it. It was his pain and he didn't want people spreading it around, he didn't want to be responsible for people's own misery. After a long moment of contemplation, Damian could only lower his eyes, "It's… complicated, Monica."

"Then make it less complex," Monica tried to be supportive, and it wasn't just because of the fact that the young man in front of her was the only link to her sole grandchild. She liked him because of who he was, not because of who he was to her. "Damian, believe me, I understand what it's like to be a new doctor. There are times when you don't feel like you can give people the help that they deserve, so you send them to someone who can, someone who has done everything that you're trying to do and more. I must have done it a dozen times during my first month, and I would always hate myself for doubting my own abilities when I found out that it was something simple."

"It's still more complicated than that…"

"Is it because of your mother?" Monica asked. She knew how that was, too. She had fought breast cancer in her life, and even now when she saw someone who had the same symptoms as she did there would be a moment where she would have to confront her own demons. Some thought that it would have made her a better doctor for people dealing with that particular issue, and maybe in some way they were telling the truth, but Monica didn't feel like being the patsy for every woman with breast cancer. And she knew that she was one of the lucky ones, one of the people who managed to survive what had killed so many other people. Like Emily's birthmother, and Damian's mother. "Because Miss Torres didn't have anything that could have looked like breast cancer… but, you know, if you're afraid of confronting something like that we would completely understand. Everyone has some things that they just don't feel comfortable doing, even when they've been doctors for years."

"It's personal," he couldn't listen to her completely miss the topic that was causing him so much pain time and time again. It was a waste of both their time, and while he may have had time to wait there was probably no chance that she did. Monica Quartermaine was always in demand. "That's why I couldn't see her, because I was too busy being wrapped around my own problems. Not because of anything else… because of my own issues. There, I said it… how does that make you feel?"

"Do you want to talk about them?"

"I can't."

"Is it because…"

"No, Monica," he shook his head, effectively attempting to dispel the idea from her mind, but it was unlikely to work. The Quartermaines, at least most of them, wished to believe that his father was something that was brought up during the horror stories that they would tell, and Damian knew that they had their reasons, but to vilify Sonny at every turn and make him appear to be something akin to the anti-Christ was just wrong. "It has nothing to do with my father, it's my problem… completely mine. Nothing's wrong with Michael, either. I would tell you if there was, honestly."

"Thank you for that." But she was still wondering if he was holding back some of the actual pain that he was going through. Sonny had that way about him, where he was able to command the masses to do his bidding. It was something that Monica would always hate about him. He was such a manipulator. "So, this personal problem that you're going through… it's effectively crippling you as an intern?"

"When you put it like that… it just sounds so mean."

"I don't mean to be harsh, but I have to think about the quality of care that the people who come here looking for it are getting, and I thought I could assign people to you in good faith that you would be able to give them what they wanted…"

"You can," he said, suddenly feeling like he was under attack, that he was being devalued as a member of the team, and he didn't like that. But then he thought about it, "At least… you could…" he wasn't going to lie to her or to himself, his skills had diminished ever since the breakup. "I guess it's over then, isn't it? I can't turn this thing off like some kind of button, believe me, if I could, I would find a way to do it as quickly as possible."

"It isn't over," Monica shook her head. "People are entitled to having an off day or two every now and then. Damian, go home. Take your stuff and go home, nobody is going to hold it against you. Yes, it's early in your internship, but there are things that just can't be helped."

"Nobody's going to hold it against me?" He gave a slight scoff, "Have you seen the people in the locker room, Monica? They'll take any chance they can get to rip me apart, they want to destroy my chances at having any sort of future here or anywhere else."

"I'll take care of that." There was always the person who seemed to be pushed away from the rest of the students, the odd ball out. People thought that once children grew up to become adults they stopped acting like children, but Monica knew better. Depending on what was going on they would always find a way to make themselves out to be some sort of special person, to push away others and shine. That was just the way it worked. "I can only do this so often, Damian. If you're not ready to actually start working when you come back for your next shift then you really might want to think about putting off your internship here until you sort everything out. I don't want that to sound like a threat or an ultimatum, but I don't think I can make it sound like anything else. I want you to stay, I truly do… but…"

"But you need to think about what the hospital and the people in here deserve instead of what you want… I get it, Monica, but I thank you for having faith in me. Sometimes it's nice to know that people do still have some in me when I don't think I have any in myself." He could have fought the idea of taking some time off, but he knew that he needed it.

"You know, when you want someone to talk to I hope you can find that person, but, if you ever feel like you can't talk to anyone, just think that you can always come talk to me, all right?"

"And all of this isn't because of the fact that Michael's a part of my life… maybe people are wrong about saying that everyone always wants something in return for their services. Thank you again, Monica. You've actually helped more than you could ever know."

Morgan Household-

Although it had been hours since Jason had been 'instructed' to take Courtney out for a nice evening just in case it was the last chance that they ever had at having one, he hadn't returned home. Instead, he was looking for a way to give Sonny what he wanted, he was looking for something that would help bring Durant down. Sadly, for all of Jason's vaunted skills there were limits to what he could accomplish, and he could not find a way to bring down John Durant. He was so squeaky clean that it made it seem like anyone who had gotten arrested for something so simple as jaywalking was a sinner in comparison. But Jason wasn't a fool, he knew that nobody could be that perfect. People used to think that he was that perfect, when he was Jason Quartermaine, always looking to be the model citizen. Everything about him had changed since that accident, all for the better.

It may have seemed rather egocentric of Jason to put his best friend and partner's request over the idea of spending time with his wife, but Jason didn't see it like that, and he knew that Courtney, should she have found out what was going on, wouldn't see it like that either. If Durant took Sonny down then Jason was going down with him, by trying to stop Durant Jason was ensuring the future of his best friend and of himself, as well as their family. That was why Jason could freely concentrate on something else instead of Courtney, because, in some roundabout way, he was doing it for her, too.

But, there was only so much searching that Jason could do. There was only so much that he knew how to do. Technology angered Jason Morgan, the way that it was always changing, and that one little press of a button could end up destroying everything that had been worked for. Such things did not sit well with someone who enjoyed having everything make sense. Stan was going to work around the clock on looking for something, but even he was having trouble with it. Sonny may have been to upset by Stan's supposed failure to understand it, but Jason was not. If Stan couldn't find something that was hidden it either wasn't there, which they weren't willing to accept, or the person who hid it was damned good.

The penthouse was bare and dead, as it almost always was. Even though he had taken it out at his instance, Jason had to admit that he missed the life that was brought to the penthouse by the Christmas tree. He'd never admit it, but internally he did feel that there was something missing when he walked in the house and did not instantly smell the strong hint of pine.

Jason noticed how much it had changed since Courtney had come into his life, and later, Dillon. Before, it was drab. But now, even when there was little that was there, there was still more than there would have been without her. Pictures of the two of them together, of their family, the things that Jason knew were important, even if he didn't always show it.

"Courtney?" Jason called out to his wife, hoping that she was home. There was never a way of telling with her, because there was always something that could have happened, like an impromptu shopping spree with Carly. One thing that had happened with Courtney ever since Carly came into her life was that she had found her materialistic traits to increase. Jason didn't mind. He had more money than he could have ever hoped to spend, and seeing his wife in gowns and nice clothing just seemed like a nice way of spending it.

"I'm upstairs, Jason!" Courtney yelled from above. "Give me a second and I'll come down."

Jason put his gun away. He could leave it out, but Courtney didn't like having it out in the open. Neither did he. There was no telling who could walk through the door. It could be Michael or Morgan. Michael knew what a gun was, but Jason never wanted the boy to use one, ever.

Courtney came down, her hair in a ponytail, the activity that had delayed her for those few precious moments. She was dressed in her kickboxing outfit, ready to attack the punching bag with a flurry of attacks that would make her feel like she was getting out some of that pent up rage. Despite her happy appearance, Courtney did have things to be angry about. She just hid it well, sometimes even better than Jason. "I didn't expect you to be home anytime soon. You're usually working all the time."

"Is it bad?"

"No, of course not. I'm going to take this as a present, and it isn't even a holiday." Courtney smiled and walked into his waiting arms. "Any time I can spend with you, Jason, is time that I'm happy to be alive. I just wish I got more of it."

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about…"

"Really?"

"Yeah. You know, how long has it been since the two of us went out? Just you and me, eating something, talking, being together as husband and wife? I know we go out with the boys, or with Carly and Sonny, but I want just the two of us… alone."

"Jason… this is so unexpected."

"If you can't do it just say so, I'll understand."

"Of course I can do it! I want to! When do you want to do something together?"

"Tonight. I just realized that I've always spent so much time focusing on everything else in life that I need to give you some time. You're my wife, you should come first. I know that, and I hate that I can't actually make you come first."

"I don't think you should feel bad about it," Courtney didn't like it either, but she understood. Jason may not have put her first, but she was in his life more than she was ever in AJ's life. "This is so exciting! Dinner with my husband, tonight, just the two of us…"

"Why don't you decide where we're going to go. I'll even wear something nice, but no ties… I draw the line at ties."

"You can't stop me from wearing a dress…"

"I wouldn't dream of it."

Courtney kissed her husband, a present for his spontaneity. She was going to spend some time with Jason, going to get some quality alone time with him. For that reason alone she had plenty to be happy about.


	73. Battle On

Queen of the Elven City- While Damien is indeed a legit spelling of the name, the character spells his name Damian. Not a big difference, sometimes I would do it myself. In fact, for a long time I would do it with the 'en,' instead of the 'an.' I don't know why I picked it the way I did, I just liked it more.

Samsonlove- Yes, more reviewers please me. Hurray for more reviewers! You do realize that the odds of Scott Clifton staying with the show once his contract expires is slim to none, right? The way they utilize, or underutilize, him would be enough to send me away. Old Sonny remains supreme in this story, because old Sonny, as we have stated many a time, is good.

Kelly's-

Another day of school had finally ended for her. A little bit early, but that was her right. She had a free period at the end of the day, and if she chose to take that free period and use it to leave who was going to stop her? Sometimes she would hang around the school and wait for Dillon and Georgie, both of whom had a class at the end of the day, but when she waited for her friends she realized just how few friends she had aside from them. All the people that were talking around the hallways during that free period and chatting about things that didn't matter. Brook didn't want to be a part of that social circle, but she would be lying if she said that she didn't want something that was akin to it. She wanted to be able to talk about something that really didn't matter to her, or maybe something that did. That was why she liked spending so much time with Damian, he was one of the only people who she felt that she could really connect with. She loved Dillon and Georgie, but they would be the ones that she would depend on only after she had tried the other one.

Having skipped lunch because she knew that she was going to leave school early, Brook found herself in a state of dire hunger. The literal buffet that the Quartermaine's had available to them each and every morning was good for a little while, but eventually Brook just wanted something simple, something that she used to have when she was just living with her mother. Was it so hard to demand that they have a few pop tarts around the house? It seemed like every day she was finding out something different about her family, something that made her truly wonder just how Dillon managed to survive being with them for as long as he was. And even then it was only for a few years. Brook had barely been with them for less than a month, and already she could feel them attempting to corrode at her soul, suck away the individuality that she had, much like they had attempted to do with Dillon and Jason. Was that the only escape that she had? Was it only possible for her to break the circle if she managed to somehow find a way into the Morgan household, like her uncle before her? No, Brook didn't want that. She held no ire towards Jason, but she certainly didn't want to be living with him. And he probably didn't want her around, either.

The diner wasn't as packed as she had expected it to be, and she liked that. Having it more open made it seem like it was something special for her and her alone. And yet she had to deal with it alone. She couldn't share it with anyone. Thus was her curse. Even before she had came to Port Charles, Brook Lynn had a problem with getting too close to the people around her. Like she would always put up a shield of some sort to deflect anything that could be thrown her way. Maybe it stemmed from being rejected by her father, although that was not true rejection. But it was a lesson that she learned about letting people get too close, only to have them let her down in the end. A lesson that she didn't quite follow, no matter how many times she tried to tell herself otherwise. Each time Ned would come for a visit she would tell herself that it wasn't going to be the same. That she was going to do something different, something that wouldn't let her get as hurt as she had always gotten, but, come the moment that she saw him she would just let all those doubts and fears fade away into the beyond. They wouldn't be there anymore, they would be completely gone. And then when he left, because he had something that was more important to do than be with her, all those hopes would be dashed, and the fears would come right back to the surface. For so many years she had fallen under the same cycle over and over, and even now she felt like she was doing it again.

Despite the sadness that enveloped her heart, Brook was all smiles and laughter on the outside. That was something she had learned how to do quickly as well, because she knew how much she hated it when people saw how much something really hurt her. When Elizabeth saw her, she waved and sat down at one of the tables, looking at the menu. She had eaten at Kelly's many times during her short stay in town, but she had yet to try everything. Looking at some of the options, like chicken fried steak, made her realize why she hadn't tried everything. She wasn't a culinary person. She was the type of person that wouldn't eat something if it looked or sounded like it was nasty. Brook would instead fall back on the old standbys, the ones that would never fail her. Like a cheeseburger and fries.

She had cried until there was nothing left in her, until the tears could no longer form. She did so silently, hoping that she wouldn't alert Mac to the situation. He would gloat and tell her that he told her so and that it was all for the better. Mac would try and make his daughter believe that breaking up with Damian Corinthos was the best thing that could have ever happened to her, and she would never be able to believe him because she knew it wasn't true. Breaking up with Damian was not a freeing experience, it was anything but. It was horrible for her to deal with. Something that hurt her on every possible level, threatened to rip her apart, piece by piece. And the last thing that she needed while she was busy dealing with something like that was the trauma that came. She wanted to fight for their relationship so much, and she always was fighting. Each time Mac had a shadow of doubt about their relationship she would try and do something that would make him see that there was something worth saving in it. Maxie had to fight tooth and nail to stay with him, and Damian knew that. He knew how much she battled against her father, and he appreciated it so much.

A full load of classes had been skipped. He would have told her that it wasn't something she was supposed to do, would have tried to get her to do something else, to keep on going to school. But Maxie didn't care what he thought anymore… at least not about something so trivial as a college education. She wanted to know what he thought about them, what he really thought about them. The way that he dismissed her, that had to be the pain talking. There was just no way that he would throw away something that they had, something that was so special, without even thinking about it for a second. Damian wasn't that kind of person, he dealt with everything, he remembered everything. He wouldn't have forgotten.

Maxie pulled her cell phone out of her purse and dialed one of the numbers, his number. It was still programmed to be one of the speed dials that was on phone… and she doubted she would take it off for a long time. They may have broken up, but she wouldn't give up on the two of them. Not yet. She would continue to fight, because when something meant that much to you it was worth battling for, even if the odds seemed to be impossible. Maxie wouldn't allow herself to be supplanted as the love of his life. She couldn't just stand there and watch as he fell in love with someone else. It would hurt her too much.

Her hand shook lightly as she attempted to push the call button. And then she hung up the phone. Not because she believed he was still working, but because she was unsure of what he was going to say, how he was going to react. Even if she didn't see his face she would have an image of it. The way that he looked when he heard her voice. The pain and the anger that would come up against the face that she loved to touch with her hand. Would she even get that chance again? No, there was too much that could have happened, too much that would keep her away from trying to further jeopardize her situation, her chances. Even if she only had a millionth of a chance to be with him again there was still a chance, and she wanted to be lucky. A small chance was still a chance.

Maxie found herself approaching the walkway towards Kelly's, and when she turned she saw the table where they had first met. That first time, when he tried to help her but she was too blind to accept the help that she should have known she needed. Kyle was so horrible to her, and he was the only one who saw it and tried to do something about it. Dillon and Georgie had tried to tell her that he wasn't good for her, but in the end they gave up, deciding that it was her right to make mistakes or not. Damian wouldn't have given up on her. She knew that now. He would have kept on fighting, trying to show her the thing that she was ignoring. The fact that the boy she thought she cared about was not worth the time of day, that he was only using her and that he only wanted to hurt her in some way while he got pleasure out of her. Maxie wished that she had Damian in her life sooner, things could have been so much different.

The young woman walked over to the table and placed her hand on it, a tear somehow finding a way to drain out of her body as it fell onto the surface of the table. So many memories that were so good, so many that meant so much to her, and they were all going to be gone. They would never be allowed to make more memories. And why? Because of her? No… not because of her. Because of the other girl who had tried so hard to break the two of them up. Maxie felt a strange power pull her head towards Kelly's, and it was there that she saw Brook sitting at one of the tables, brushing her hair out of her face like there was nothing wrong. Anger quickly burned inside of Maxie's being, and she walked into the restaurant, not thinking twice about what she was going to do. Maxie was a woman on a mission. A mission to kick ass.

Brook paid little attention to the fact that someone had walked in. Why would it register with her? Kelly's had people coming in and out all the time. Sometimes they were people that she knew, oftentimes they were not. It was only when she saw the hand that was placed on the table that she was sitting at that she actually looked up and over. "Maxie? What do you want?"

"I want you to feel some of the pain that I'm feeling right now."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Brook sniffed the air, wondering if Maxie may have gotten drunk. It wouldn't have been the first time. Georgie had told Brook about how much her sister had changed since she had gotten together with Damian, told her the stories of Maxie almost overdosing and being drunk frequently. But, there was no hint of alcohol in the air. "Are you on something?"

"You'd love that, wouldn't you? You'd love for me to be on something that would help explain what was going on, so you could go and tell Damian that I was on some drug, so that you could bring me down a few notches in his eyes. That's all you've ever wanted to do it, isn't it, Brook? All you've ever wanted to do was find a way to destroy whatever chance of happiness I had with him!"

"I never wanted to do that…"

"Like hell you didn't! The whole time you've been here you've been fawning over him, looking at him like he was just a piece of meat that you wanted to taste. You thought of every possible reason to get near him. You used his sympathy, you used his caring nature and you twisted it into something that could work in your favor, something that would help keep the fact that you're some twisted little bitch hidden from him!"

"Maxie, I don't know what the hell your problem is, but you need to step away from me because I'm not going to take this kind of crap from anyone, least of all you. If you have some issues with your boyfriend then I suggest you find a way to talk them out with him and not use me as some sort of scapegoat for your problems, because you cause them, Maxie. You've always caused the problems that get in your way. Nobody else, just you."

"We broke up, Brook! We broke up because of you!"

"I'm sure the last thing that broke the two of you up was me. It was probably because you're a selfish and spoiled brat who never truly appreciated what you had in front of you!"

Maxie reacted to the insult in the only way she knew how, by slapping Brook across the face with all her strength. Brook twisted her face with the impact, placing a hand on her cheek, it burned when she touched it. Her eyes were ablaze with rage and frustration. How long had she managed to keep her anger in check when it came to Maxie? How often did she fight back the urge to smack that smug little look right off her face? And now it appeared that she no longer needed to fight back any urges. If Maxie threw the first blow, which she did, then it was on.

Without hesitation, Brook reached over and grabbed Maxie's hair, pulling at it as she leaned forward and brought them both to the ground, their arms and legs flailing about madly as they rolled around the ground. Nails were used, slashing parts of the body from face down to wrist. A flurry of fists were used by both, all the while they were shouting at each other and groaning. Lost in the madness that a common brawl brought them.

"Hey, hey!" Elizabeth, who had been in the back when the commotion started, finally came back into the main area and rushed over, trying to pull the two of them apart. "Knock it off, you two!" But Elizabeth's calls were left unheeded. In such a battle, the only way that one of them would stop was if the other yielded, and the fire that burned in each of them showed they had no intention of stopping anytime soon.

Being dismissed from the call of duty may have been something that he didn't want, but, like many things. Damian tried to think of it as a mixed blessing. After all, he didn't have to worry about eating hospital food again for the near future. Instead, he was craving something that was cooked by a person who knew what they were doing. He walked into Kelly's, completely unaware of what was going on, but as soon as he opened the door he saw what was happening. Without saying a word, Damian pulled the top girl, which was Maxie, off of Brook and held her back. "Knock it off, both of you!"

"Your psycho ex-girlfriend attacked me!"

"You deserved it, you little whore!" Maxie yelled, "You broke up everything that was good in our life…"

"Brook," Damian spoke softly, trying to curb the anger in the air, anger that was building up in himself as well. "Are you all right?"

Brook pulled up her now ripped shirt and wiped some of the blood from her face. "I'll be fine."

"Damian… aren't you going to ask about me?"

"Just go home, Maxie." Damian instructed. "You know why we broke up, and you know that Brook really didn't have anything to do with it. We broke up because of your mistakes, not anyone else's."

"But… but…"

"Maxie…" he looked at her with eyes that he had never used on her before, eyes that showed something she never thought she would see in him: hatred. "Just go… please…"

Maxie pulled herself away from him and shot them both a dirty look, "I hope the two of you can be happy together! But you'll never care for her like you cared about me!" Holding back her tears, Maxie rushed out of the restaurant, leaving Damian and Brook alone with a very confused Elizabeth.

Damian looked at her as she dashed passed the window. There was so much anger inside of him, so much that he wanted to burst, but he still didn't know how he felt about her. The love he had was so strong that it was almost enough to make him forget anything. Almost.


	74. Goodbye To You

Queen of the Elven City- Yes, the fight gives plenty of reason for him to be angst-ridden, doesn't it? Good news, there will be even more that will cause him to be angst-ridden in the future.

Samsonlove- We both hope that Scott won't be going anywhere, at least on some level… but while hope may spring eternal, reality does not. I loved the Carly and Reese fight, that was some good stuff. Not as good as the Carly and Sam fight, which reminded me of Dynasty, but it was still quite good. Maybe one of the reasons why Carly and Maxie don't care for another is because they remind each other of the other, but only the worst qualities.

Story-

Quartermaine Mansion, Interior-

Although it had taken her a good five minutes to actually get inside the house, Lois had indeed gotten inside the mansion. Everything looked so pretty and perfect, but she knew that it was just the outward appearance that the mansion gave off to people who didn't know any better. Those who knew what it was like to be inside the mansion knew just how oppressive it really could be. That the whole thing with it looking like it belonged in some old movie was just a face that was placed upon it to make it look more appealing. Even when there were guests in the mansion they would be swept up in the majesty. But the minute that the guests left, the second that the doors were closed everything was shattered once more, brought down by the fact of life.

"Are you sure you don't want me to come with you inside, Lois?" Max asked. He'd never been inside the Quartermaine mansion before, and never thought that he would actually go inside during his entire life. Jason had spoken of it a few times, and he had learned a few things about it from Dillon. Max, like most people who were virgins to the ways of the Quartermaine's, was far too busy being taken aback by the splendor that fooled so many people. It was like Wayne Manor. All it needed was some sort of person acting as Alfred. And a cave. But what were the odds of the mansion not having some sort of cave? It would explain a lot about the Quartermaine's.

"If you hear me screaming for help, just come on in… and I'll come get you when I need you otherwise. Thank you for the support, Max, I just need… I need to do this one alone. These are my demons to confront, let me do it my way."

"I'll be standing right by the door if you need me."

Lois nodded and turned around, heading into the main part of the house. When she heard Max shut the door she also felt a cold chill run down her spine, as if she knew that she really was alone. She didn't have anyone that would be able to come and save her. Before she would have depended on Ned to do that for her, but that person, the person that Ned used to be, was completely gone. And while she had once hoped for him to come back she knew that it wouldn't happen. The person that she loved had been killed by the spirit of the Quartermaine's, and it wasn't the first time it happened. Far from it. She just wished that it never happened, wished that Ned would have had the strength to avoid becoming just another person that was brought down by the family. Lois believed that he could have been such a person, she really did. But that was her own foolish optimism getting in her way and tricking her into some false sense of security.

The sound of her shoes hitting the ground echoed through the otherwise silent halls. On one level it should have made her comfortable. It was, after all, not very often that the Quartermaine's had some semblance of quiet in their lives. But that was a double edged sword, because it was like the calm before the storm. The eye of the hurricane. And she was stepping right into it without any help at all, just the foresight that something was going to happen. Something that probably wasn't going to go over very well. It wasn't going to stop her. What she needed to do was necessary. Lois needed to make a stand for her own sanity. She needed to show people that she wasn't going to be pushed around by the money that the family threw in her face. She had her own money, and maybe it wasn't a lot of money, it wasn't enough money to buy everything that a person could ever want, but it was enough to keep her happy.

Lois remembered how she grew up, in the old neighborhood, with Sonny and all their other friends. She was a strong girl back then, able to stand up to even the toughest people that would try and get in her face. Absolutely fearless, without any regrets. What had happened to that little girl? The one that could face any problem without a care in the world? Why did she have to change so much, why did she have to acquire such a weakness? Sonny never did. He was still the same person that he was when he was a boy, albeit stronger and more sure of himself than he ever was before. Her best friend was a role model for Lois to follow, and she would eventually find a way to become like Sonny, in her own way.

"No, I don't care about the other people's schedules right now! This is the first hospital board meeting of the year, it is imperative that everyone who is on the board attend. The only people who can't make it are the ones who are in the hospital, or have died! You listen to me… find a way to get them to the meeting in a few days. I don't care what you have to do! This was very important to my mother and I'm going to be damned if I let the whole thing fall apart under my watch! Make it happen!" Tracy slammed the phone back on the receiver and then took a drink from the cup of water that she had placed next to it. Lila made everything look so easy. Even after she had ended up in that wheelchair she still had a fire in her eyes that wouldn't be dominated by anyone. Tracy wasn't a quarter of the woman that her mother was, and she understood that. How could she not? People were constantly telling her such things, every chance that they got. And, even when they didn't say it with their words they said it with their eyes. Their damming eyes that seemed to wonder why it had happened. Why Lila Quartermaine could have had a child that was so sick and twisted.

Lois felt another cold chill run down her spine. Tracy was horrible to confront, even when she was in a good mood. But when she was upset there was no stopping the things that she would say. Tracy was the woman that brought everything down. Tracy had warped Ned so much, even when she wasn't around, that it was just impossible to break the hold that he was under. That knowledge was enough to give Lois the spark of courage that she needed in order to do what she was going to do. "Tracy…"

The woman quickly turned around upon hearing her name. "What are you doing here? I thought you were busy staying at our hotel on your best friend's blood money."

"I was staying at the hotel, and Sonny did pay for it, from the money that he gets importing coffee around the world. Do you want me to get you a bag? I'm sure that you have some in the kitchen. Monica loves her son's coffee."

"We all know that the coffee business is just a front for Sonny and Jason to make it look like they're not cold blooded killers. I know better, Lois…"

"Then I guess your son doesn't, since he's busy being buddy-buddy with those two cold blooded killers."

"I don't need to be reminded of the mistakes that my child is making, thank you very much," Tracy glared at Lois. Lois knew that mentioning the fact that Dillon had fallen from the grace that Tracy had attempted to set up for her baby was going to rub the woman in the wrong way. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to see Ned."

"He isn't here right now. He's busy doing something that requires he talk to someone who is worth the time. And you, my dear, were never worth his time, even when you two were busy with that sham of a marriage."

"You're wrong, Tracy. Ned loved me once. He loved me more than he'll ever love any other person in the world, and I loved him in the same way… but that's behind us now. And we both need to accept that."

"I've already accepted it," Ned said from behind her. "Lois… I'm sorry…"

"I know you are, and I accept your apology. What we said that night… that was just our anger talking. We were upset with each other, and we always make it a point to attack one another in the worst possible way when we're mad with one another. We've always been like that. Always."

"Can we try again?"

Lois looked into his eyes, they were sincere. She knew that he wanted to give it another try, and that he would probably try and make it last. But she also knew that no matter how hard Ned tried he would never really be able to give her what she wanted. She wanted a man who wasn't tied down by his connections to his family. She wanted someone who loved his family, which Ned did, but they had him on a leash. Lois just couldn't have that again. "I'm sorry, Ned. I really am… but we can't try again."

Ned turned his eyes up and looked at his mother. "If you did something to make this happen, I swear I will hate you for the rest of your life…"

Tracy shrugged, "Don't look at me. I didn't have anything to do with the girl's decision, unless my prayers have been answered…"

"You don't know how to pray, mother…"

Lois touched Ned's hand softly, "Your mother didn't have anything to do with this, Ned. Honestly. The choice that I'm making is my choice and my choice alone. I don't want to be with you ever again, because I know that something will just happen that will send us apart. I love what we had all those years ago too much to ruin it, and I love our daughter too much to get her hopes up for nothing."

"Brook doesn't…"

Lois shook her head, "I was stupid to believe that staying in this house was not going to give her ideas, because I should have known that she would have believed that there was a chance, however small, that something good could have come out of it. She's a teenager. More than that she's a human being, and she would always want us to get back together, no matter how old she was. By doing what we did we threw the possibility in her face… only to yank it away. That's not what good parents should do."

"What do good parents do then?"

"Good parents admit that they care about each other, and they always will, but the feelings that they have aren't strong enough to make a relationship again. That's what we have. No matter how much you anger me, Ned, no matter how many hurtful things you say to me, I'm always going to love you for what you meant to me once upon a time. I can't help it. You're responsible for giving me my daughter, and I will always owe you for that."

"Lois, please…"

She once more shook her head, "You're only going to make this harder for both of us." The tears were beginning to form in her eyes, but she refused to let them fall, refused to let Tracy see her tears. "Don't make this harder…"

"What are you going to do?" Ned asked, knowing that the battle which was being fought was not one that he could win. He had lost any chance of winning the fight already, and there was nothing he could do to change that.

"I'm moving out."

"Hallelujah!" Tracy threw her hands up in the air.

"Mother!" Ned scorned Tracy. "You should just leave."

"And miss one of the happiest moments of my existence? Never."

Ned moved over to her and grabbed her wrist. Not hard enough to hurt, but hard enough to make his intentions obvious, "I said leave." His warning given, Ned released his hold on Tracy's wrist.

"Fine…"

When the two were alone, Lois spoke again. "I have enough money to rent a house here in town, and I'm going to start looking around for a job. Nothing too big, just something to make a little cash. I'll have a room for Brook, too."

"So… you're taking her again?"

Lois sighed, "I wouldn't do that. I still stand by my decision that I made when I came here. Brook has been away from your family for too long. I realize that they're odd, but in their own way they love her. I know that you love her, I can see that. I won't take that away again. I'm going to tell her what's going on, and I'm going to give her the choice. No strings. She can stay here if she wants, or she can come with me."

"No strings…"

"That means that you can't influence her either, Ned. You or any other members of the family. Brook has a mind of her own, let her make up that mind for herself. Promise me…"

"I promise."

"Thank you." Lois gave a sad smile. After all, a part of her life had just ended, and it wasn't going to come back anytime soon. But it was her choice to make, and she had made it. She stood by her decision.

Port Charles-

Where was she? She didn't even know anymore. All she knew was that she hadn't left town, even though a part of her wished that she did. Port Charles no longer made sense. Everything seemed to be crumbling down around her, and she didn't know how she was going to stop it.

The tears had fallen from her face for what seemed to be an eternity. She knew how much rage she had towards her mother for keeping the secret from her even when she asked. Carly had requested something so simple from Bobbie and she couldn't get it. Bobbie lied to her, over and over again, about who her father was. She knew the whole time, Bobbie knew everything… and she didn't say a single word.

Carly got up from the bench where she had been sitting and decided to get some help. When her world was falling apart there was only one person who she could always turn to. The person who had never lied to her before. The one who was always there for her, no matter what.


	75. Omen

Queen of the Elven City- Maybe you should do a little bit of both? That's my suggestion, at least.

Story-

Kelly's-

Morgan was fussy, as was expected with a child of his age. Many people who had come into the restaurant were entranced by the sight of the little baby that was so carefully placed safely in open view. Even with Mike busy in the back frequently cooking up the many orders that were filled, Elizabeth was always there. And Mike knew that she would not allow her newly reacquired nephew by marriage to have any harm come to him. Mike always wished, from the moment he met Elizabeth, that the child she was going to have would not have met the fate that it did. He was fully aware of the fact that the child was also going to be Ric's, but nobody could be faulted for who their parents were, and Elizabeth, of all people, deserved some chance at happiness in her life. While Mike was still very surprised that she attempted to find such happiness once more with a man who had only brought her much pain he realized that it was not his call to make, because if it was his call to make there would likely be no chance in hell that he would have allowed her to be with Ric again. It was sad that Elizabeth's parents weren't in her life as much as they should have been. Audrey was there, and even she had just allowed Ric to infiltrate their lives once again so casually, but Mike had made a mess of his own family once before, it really did not give him much room to talk about other people, and he understood that. It didn't keep him from having an opinion, it merely kept him from vocally expressing it very much.

One other thing that had changed Mike's perspective of Ric was the way that Damian would always defend him. The way that the boy would go out of his way to try and make sure that the black sheep of their twisted little family wasn't put out so far into the open area to be shot. Mike would never forget the way that his grandson looked when he finally made a stand against all the potshots that were taken at Ric by him and everyone else. The way that he pleaded with them to at least be civil about him, to treat him like a human. Damian fully understood Ric's faults, even if he wasn't there to see them. Had he been there he might have thought differently. Had Damian been there… maybe things would have turned out better. Family was so important to the boy, on some levels even more important than the idea of family was to his own father, who lived by it like it was gospel. That infectious type of family yearning might have rubbed off on all of them and saved them a world of hurt. But it didn't go that way, and there was still so much pain in all their hearts. Damian's zeal for togetherness may have rubbed off, but it was not in any way a white-wash.

Mike returned out of the back to see Morgan, who was still looking like he was upset about something. Mike thought about what it could have been and when he tried the usual suspects and came up with nothing he found himself at a point in his life where he didn't really know what he needed to do about it. But Mike knew what was going on, or at least thought he did. Morgan was a smart child, just like his brothers, and babies always had a way of knowing what was going on, even if they weren't able to truly comprehend it. He missed his mother, and he was worried about her. Mike could completely relate to the second feeling, because he also worried about Carly.

Carly was a strange woman, Mike always knew that, but she was not a bad person, despite the claims that many had made. She was just confused and hurt and she was the type of person who would do something that was completely idiotic just to prove a point. Together those qualities were often things that were bad, but in Carly, Mike saw something else. Mike saw what Carly truly was. Just a child who was looking for the love that she had lost when she was a little girl, looking for some sort of acceptance. Mike may not have been a little boy, but in some way he was doing the same thing with Sonny, trying to move mountains in order to bridge the gap that had been left in the wake of Mike's singular mistake in life. The one thing that could never be forgotten, taken back in any way. In a lot of ways, Mike understood Carly better than most, even Sonny on some level.

"I know you're worried about your mother, Morgan. But you have to have some faith in mommy right now, okay? And you have to remember that no matter what she's going through she will always put you and Michael at the front of her heart. You make her who she is, you help her through everything. Keep on doing that and I know you're going to be fine." His words were laced with that inwardly inherited quality that came when a man became a grandfather, that sort of blind trust that was placed in a man, especially when a child was young. Sonny had that trust once, and it had been betrayed. Mike was determined not to let that happen again, even if it meant losing everything that he once considered worthwhile, like his gambling habits and the various other vices that threatened to consume him.

"Here you go, Morgan," Elizabeth handed the bottle over to him and smiled. "I managed to grab some of the orange juice we had left over from earlier today, and I remember how your big brother told me how much you loved orange juice…" when the baby placed his mouth to the teat of the bottle, Elizabeth's smile widened. Morgan meant a lot to her, in ways that she didn't really understand. Part of it was because of what she could have had, both with the baby, had Ric's plan succeeded, and what she lost with her own child. Even in the end, however, Elizabeth knew in her heart that she would not have allowed the child to stay with her, had she ever found out. Carly may not have been her favorite person, but she never should have been denied such a chance to nurture her own child. Elizabeth had apparently blocked out the part of her memory that would have reminded her that the plot called for Carly to be killed.

"You really are great with him." Mike observed.

"Babies are pretty easy to please, at times. I mean, I haven't been around a lot of babies in my life, most of my friends are still single, or at least they don't have kids, but sometimes I would see people with babies, especially when I was younger, my parents' friends, and I would watch. I always knew I wanted to be a mother…" that final admittance seemed to open a door that she would have rather stayed locked, but she kept it hidden well. The only demons she needed to confront were her own, and she knew how to handle them. "I just wish I knew where Carly was… that was so odd of her to just dump the poor kid on you. Inconsiderate, too."

"She was talking to Bobbie, and I know that they've needed to talk for a few days… maybe something that was said ruffled some feathers. I haven't even spoken with Bobbie recently, either. I didn't even see her once Carly left."

"Still… she shouldn't have done that. Who would abandon such a wonderful little child like this?"

"I could have sent him with his brother… but everything that happened…" Mike wasn't even around for the fight, he was in the back, in the freezer, where the sounds were muffled. "Morgan must have been so scared."

"I know I was," Elizabeth had known Maxie for a long time, and she had never seen the girl so consumed with rage and hatred. It was understandable, at least on some level. Elizabeth was fully aware of Brook's intentions in stealing Damian away, and, with the two of them broken up Maxie needed some sort of catharsis, even if it wasn't all that healthy. "It took me a few minutes to calm him down, but I had to deal with making sure that nothing was broken here…"

"I still think you should have let me talk to Maxie. I mean… we're connected to each other, at least through him."

Elizabeth had not broken her vow to Ric, and by default to Damian, by telling Mike what had transpired in the relationship between his grandson and Maxie, but she had wanted to. She felt that Mike had a right to know, although the right to know did not fall upon her to tell him. "At times like that it's often best just to let the person be alone and deal with their own thoughts for a little while. They might need to take some time and adjust to everything that they've done and said. She was better off alone. Trust me."

"I do trust you, Elizabeth. I just wish that I could have done something to help…"

"You never know, you might get your chance."

At that moment another person walked into Kelly's, it was Sonny, who was busy dealing with his own problems and wondered why he had missed so many calls from his father in such a short amount of time. Eventually, he decided to just go over instead of calling, figuring it was better. "Mike… what's up?"

"I need you to pick up a package that was sent here…"

"Why would anyone leave a package for me here? They know that they can just drop it off at the Penthouse, or even the warehouse where the coffee is." Mike and Elizabeth parted like the red sea, revealing the very noticeable child that was in the carrier. Sonny stood there, dumbfounded for a moment, before he spoke again, "Why is my son here? Is Carly here, too?"

"She was… earlier…"

"Mike, don't give me any cryptic answers right now. If there's something wrong with my wife you need to tell me!"

"I don't know what's wrong with Carly, Sonny. If I did it would solve a lot of problems, believe me…"

"So what happened?"

"She just came in here and announced that she needed to be alone for a little while. She begged me to take care of Morgan, Sonny. I tried to tell her that I couldn't, but she kept on pressing it on me over and over. Sonny, the way that she looked at me… those eyes… it was obvious that something was wrong. I couldn't just say no to someone who obviously needed some help, especially someone I cared about."

"How long ago was that?"

Mike looked at the clock, "At least six hours ago. I've been trying to call you ever since she dropped Morgan off, but you haven't been answering your phones, both your home and your cell. Is everything all right?"

"I've just got a lot of things to deal with…" Sonny may have demanded that he did not have a cryptic response to his questions, but he was not above doing such a thing to his own father. After all, to Sonny, Mike had given up many rights to actually be an active part of his life. "But I came… and that's what is important."

"Can you take him back to the penthouse with you?" Mike asked. "I mean, don't get me wrong, I love having time to spend with my grandson, but right now I'm a little too busy working here… I can't give him the attention that he deserves. Elizabeth was a big help, though."

"I couldn't just ignore someone as cute as Morgan," she replied. The smile had faded when Sonny came, and it didn't return when she complimented the baby. They didn't hate one another, but Elizabeth had become intimidated by Sonny, even more so now that she was once again connected to him through a marriage. One that Sonny probably didn't even want to have take place. But Sonny did not rule their lives, and he never should have.

"Thank you, both, for doing this…" Sonny walked between them and picked up the carrier. "Hey there, champ. I'm sorry that you had to stay here where you don't have anything to play with, but I'm sure your mother had a good reason for doing what she did…" Sonny prayed that Carly did, because if she just casually abandoned their child for the hell of it he was not going to be pleased. That was not something that Carly would have done, though. No matter what state of mind she was in, Carly always made sure to let people know that she loved her children with all of her being.

"Do me a favor, Sonny," Mike began, "when you find out what happened to Carly please tell me. Please. I want to know if there is anything that I can do to help my family."

"I will…"

Mike looked at Sonny and those deep brown eyes that he had gotten from his mother. Courtney had gotten Mike's eyes, and they were much easier to read. But Sonny's eyes had moments where Mike could tell what was going on inside the head of the son who had been lost to him in a lot of ways. The Quartermaine's had it easy, Jason didn't really remember any of the times that he spent with them. Sonny did, and he could never forget. But, in that moment, Mike saw something that he thought he would not see ever again, he saw honesty in Sonny's eyes, as if he was saying that he would make sure to do what was asked, even if it wasn't for his most favorite person on the planet. "Thank you. I need to take care of something." Mike leaned over and kissed his grandson on the forehead, "Bye, Morgan. I love you."

Sonny was left alone with Elizabeth. They also shared a glance with one another, but they said nothing. Sonny didn't know what to say to her, what he could say. He would be indebted to her for everything that she had done for his son, both as a friend and as a protector, but there was still so much between them that made them completely different people. Without anything to be said, Sonny found no reason to stick around. Instead, he walked along and out the door.

Elizabeth waited for a moment and, upon seeing that there was nothing that needed to be taken care of immediately, rushed out the door to be near him again. "Sonny!" She called out, seeing him turn around, "Wait, please!"

"What? Do you know something?"

"About Carly? No." Even if she tried, she would never understand Carly, she doubted that anyone could. "I just… I need to tell you something…"

"What?"

"He's going to need you, Sonny. He's going to need you to be his father. He's going to need you to help him understand why things happen the way that they do. You need to make sure that you do your best to help him see that there isn't going to be some sort of end of the world, that he is strong enough to beat what is being thrown at him. You need to show him those things, you're the only one who can."

"Elizabeth… what are you talking about?" If she was talking about Morgan then she was obviously out of her mind. Morgan didn't need anything that was being explained to him, not a single thing. He was too young to understand anything.

"Just make sure that you're there for him, Sonny. Because I mean what I said, you're going to need to be there for him no matter what." Letting her words sink in, Elizabeth ventured back into Kelly's. She had done what she wanted to do without breaking her word, and, for Elizabeth, that was very important.


	76. Initiation

Outside the Morgan Household-

Immediately she looked over to her side and looked at the door of her house, but she decided not to go inside. She wasn't ready to face them, not yet. She wasn't ready to tell Sonny the truth that was right there in front of them, no longer able to be denied. John Durant was her father. The man who wanted to destroy her husband and her best friend was also the man who had caused her to come into being. The weight that was on Carly's shoulders threatened to consume her whole, and it was only with great strength that she didn't even know she had that she was able to make it into the Harbor View Towers. Carly knew that what she did to Morgan was wrong and uncalled for. She knew that putting the baby in the care of his grandfather was not the right thing to do, that it was an insult to her love of both her son and her father-in-law, but she couldn't help it. Carly didn't know what she was going to do, and that was when she was at her most dangerous, when she didn't know what the next step in her plan was. When that happened, she did things that she needed help to fix, and sometimes the only person who could help was Jason.

That was why she was outside the house, because while John wanted to take down both Sonny and Jason one of them would take it better than the other. The one who would no doubt take the situation better was Jason, because he was always able to adjust without much of a problem. That was why she loved him so much, why she cared about him more than she cared about a lot of other people, even Sonny in some ways. That was why she depended on him. When Carly needed someone who could be there for her in all the ways that she needed she would turn to Jason and he would give her the support, no questions asked. Even when he didn't want to do it… he would.

Carly never needed to knock and see if Jason was home. His door was always open to her, and he was always there when she needed him. It was like he somehow knew when there was something that was going to bother her, and even though he couldn't really prepare for it, he found a way to make sure he was ready for something. Sucking up her fears, Carly opened the door immediately and walked in, speaking without looking to see if anyone was there, "Jason, I need you!"

"You know, I've always dreamed about being thought of as Jason in the back of my head… but I never dreamed about having it make me deal with you. I guess there's a bad side to everything."

"Dillon…" Carly had little patience for Dillon, even though he was rubbing off on her in some ways, and, when she was in panic mode, as she was at that moment, there was even less patience to deal with him. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"I love here, remember? That's not something that you can say. I know you might be next door, but this isn't your home…"

"It shouldn't even be yours," she replied.

Dillon lowered his eyes. For all the times that people told him that they wanted him around it only took one moment for someone to say otherwise to make him think that maybe they were the ones that were telling the truth. For some reason, people didn't want to hurt his feelings.

Carly was expecting some sort of witty retort, as she had come to believe whenever she was around Dillon. It was like having a male version of Lois around, they would go back and forth without a single care at what they said. But, when something was said that hit a little too close to home they realized that they had gone too far. Carly may have been busy thinking about her own problems, but there were plenty of times when she knew that she had pressed the wrong button, "Look… Dillon…"

"Jason said he wanted me here, Carly."

"I know he did…"

"And is that good enough for you?" Dillon asked, some anger in his voice, "Because if it isn't then I don't know what to tell you. I didn't come here looking for support from everyone that was in Jason and Courtney's life. I came here because they cared enough about me and my situation to help me make it better. If you don't like that… then that's your problem, not mine. Not anyone else's. Stop trying to make your problems rub off on everyone. I honestly don't know how you manage to keep people around you as long as you do…"

"Hey, I don't deserve that!"

"And I didn't deserve to be belittled and degraded. Don't you think I know that I'm always going to be on the outside, no matter how long I'm here? Don't you think I worry about that every day? Don't you care about other people's feelings?"

"Yes, I do!"

"I don't think so."

Carly sighed, "What do I need to do in order to make you see that I'm sorry? Do you want me to beg? Do you want me to get down on my knees and ask for forgiveness? Because, if you do, you're going to be disappointed. I don't beg for anything, Dillon. I came up from nothing, I didn't have some famous last name to help me get by in life like you did."

"You think I wanted to be the person that I am? That I wanted to be in this family? Think about it for a moment, Carly. You've been a Quartermaine, if only for a little while, you've dealt with them time and time again… the way that they kill your spirit, the way that they make you feel like you're not worth the ground that you walk on? They don't reserve that for people who aren't born into the family… they'll accept Emily with open arms, love her like she was always a member of their family… but people like me, and Brook? We're screwed. But she had the support of a mother who loved her… I had my mother, but I was just some tagalong that she would have done without. I didn't even have a father, ever."

"Neither did I…"

"Then maybe you can understand what I'm going through, what I've always been going through. I'm not welcome into a lot of places, because of who I am, last name, personality, hairstyle, whatever the hell it is, there's almost always something that keeps me from being truly accepted by some group of people. Sometimes it doesn't bother me. I don't really want to be a Quartermaine... but I want to be a part of this group, of this family. I don't know why, but I do. Maybe it's because, no matter what, you people care about each other. That's something that I've always wanted. Can you understand that?"

"Can you understand that I have a father who I just met, one who wants to take down everything that I hold dear?" Carly blurted out the frustration because it had built to a point where if she didn't say anything she was going to burst. The stunned look on Dillon's face gave her the impression that she knew he would have. "Yeah, that's right, John Durant's my dad…"

"Carly… I…"

"Now the tables turned, haven't they? Now you don't know what to say to me, do you? I came here because I needed someone to talk with, and the only person I've ever been able to trust with my problems no matter how big they are is Jason. If you don't tell me where the hell he is…"

"I don't know where he is. He and Courtney went somewhere. They left a message on my phone while I was walking back here from school. They didn't say where they were going, just that they probably wouldn't be around for most of the night."

"Great… just great… the one time I need someone and they're not even here for me." Carly turned around and headed for the door, unsure of what she was going to do.

"Wait…"

"Another potshot at me?"

Dillon shook his head, "I want to help you, Carly. Come on, the Quartermaine's have always told each other that I reminded them too much of Jason, that I had too much of his drive and his passion… that's why they didn't want me here. At least my mother and my brother… so, if I'm compared to Jason so often, maybe…"

"Maybe you can give me the help that I'm looking for?"

"Exactly."

Carly scoffed, "I don't think so, junior. You must be x amount of years in order to tackle this problem, and you're still green around the gills."

"Carly, please. Don't you think I can help a little? We've both been raised without a father. Jason might not remember Alan being there for him, but he knows that he was, and Alan is still there in his life. Face it… I'm the best shot you have right now."

Carly thought about it for a moment, but then she realized that Dillon had a point. He was one of the best people that she could talk to about the problem, and he was probably the most objective… "Look, I don't know how much I can talk to you about this, because I don't know if I can trust you with all of it… but I'll try, all right? No promises other than that."

"That's all I want, a chance to make you see that I can be someone you can lean on…"

"My whole life I didn't know who my real parents were. And then I found out that Bobbie had left me, given me up because she couldn't give me the life she thought I deserved. I was so angry, you know that. You've heard about what I did to my mother. I regret everything that I did so much, Dillon, but I can't take it back. When we finally got through that, when we were finally able to become a family, I was so happy. But then Morgan got sick, remember? He almost died… and it was only because of Damian that he was able to survive. Don't get me wrong, I appreciated the fact that he was there, more than he'll ever know. But Morgan is his brother by blood, Michael isn't. If something like that happened to Michael, Damian wouldn't be able to help."

"But Michael has all his relatives in the Quartermaine's, and they all care about him. I know they have a strange way of showing it, but they do."

"I know that, but what about my father? That was the only thing that I could think about when Morgan was sick, and when he got better. What if something happened and nobody matched the boys, and I had to depend on my father's family for help? I never had any clue who my father was, Dillon, ever. I didn't even think I really needed to know, I always thought that Bobbie would be enough for me, but I was wrong. I didn't think about how much I needed my father in my life until something happened that almost took some of that family away from me. So, I thought I could get my mother to give me some hints… and she didn't even give me any. She didn't want me to find out who my father was, and I never knew why…"

"And now you know…"

"She knew," Carly said softly. "She knew the whole time that John was my dad, and she kept it from me… and I don't know why."

"Because she cares about you, and she knows how much your family means to you. I don't know much about Durant, Carly, but I've read about him in the paper a few times. He wants to destroy the mob, any mob that he can get his hands on… I never thought about him coming here, but he did. Bobbie probably didn't think that he would ever come here, either, but she didn't want to tell you that there was a chance that he could come and destroy everything that you love. That's why she kept it from you."

"Doesn't make it right…"

"Sometimes people do things for reasons that they think are right, no matter what happens when the other people find out what happened." Dillon may have been known for his retorts, but there were times when he could be completely serious. Such was a time.

"I don't know what I'm going doing to do. My world seems like its crumbling around me, and nobody can help hold it up."

"Jason would help."

"Yeah… Jason would help."

"And so will I."

Carly snickered, "I don't know what you can do."

"Well, look at it this way, when you came into the house I saw that you were shaking with some sort of pent up rage and frustration. Now look at you. Are you shaking at all? I don't think you are, and if you are, I can't see it. It might be my ego talking, but I think that what I said to you helped you, even a little."

"I still don't know anything, Dillon. I don't know what my next plan of action is…"

"I've heard about these plans, my advice would be ignore them, don't do anything stupid…"

"What would you do?"

"What would I do if Paul Hornsby decided to come around and check up on me? Make sure that I was healthy and alive? I… I'd be happy beyond belief. Honestly. Do you know how many times I've thought about calling him up and telling him about me? And then I don't do it, because I'm afraid of what could happen. Afraid of being rejected by him. My father doesn't want to destroy my way of living, though. I know what I would do, Carly, but the only one who can tell you what to do is you…"

The older woman closed her eyes and thought about what she wanted. No matter how hard she tried to find an answer she couldn't. There was just too much going on, too many variables that she thought she wouldn't be able to handle. But, at least she had people that she could depend on.


	77. Intimate and Not So Intimate

Samsonlove- Dillon and Carly have never had a conversation with each other ever since he has been on the show, at least to my knowledge. Dillon and Courtney had that moment where they danced together at Nik and Em's wedding, and it was great, but, aside from that… they haven't had one either. Of course, given the chance of status quo that my stories have in regards to Dillon, having him talk with Carly doesn't seem that odd. I wanted to do it, because they have a lot in common, which people don't seem to understand. I wanted it to be funnier, though. But, it turned out to be more dramatic, which is fine. I think Sam won the fight, and they were fighting about Jason. Can't really remember the details, though.

Story-

Somewhere in Port Charles-

Courtney looked over at her husband and couldn't help but laugh. She was laughing at Jason, and would make no claim that she was not, but the reason she was laughing certainly was not out of malice. No, the only person who Courtney had ever truly felt malice in her heart for was dead. Lorenzo was gone, and, in some small way, she felt that the death of the child that was caused by his hand had been vanquished as well. Of course, Courtney would always hate the man for stealing something that was so precious to her, and even more for also taking something that meant a lot to someone that she cared about deeply. In killing Lorenzo, Damian lost his innocence. Innocence that should have been his to keep for the rest of his life. Sonny and Jason knew what it was like to lose that innocence, and even they didn't know how to help him. Some things just could not be helped.

Jason looked over at his wife. People would always comment on how beautiful his eyes were, and while Jason may have thought on some level that they were correct he also always thought that his wife's eyes were much more pristine. A purity in them that had not been tainted. Jason's purity had gone away long ago, the minute he picked up his first gun and fired it, killing a man. It had become old hat, kitch to the point where Jason could kill person after person without seemingly showing any emotion in his eyes, or even in his heart.

The smile that was on Courtney's face continued to be there, as well as some sort of laughter that she tried to keep suppressed. Jason didn't mind the fact that she looked so pleasant. He believed that she deserved such a chance, especially since it could have been the last chance that they ever had to be together. "What's so funny, Courtney?"

Courtney took a moment to stop laughing. She tried to talk and then fell into giggles again. Holding her sides, the woman took a deep breath and once more gave an honest effort to halt the laughter. The second time was much more successful, "Look at where we're at, Jason."

"We're at a restaurant."

"Yeah, I know we're at a restaurant, but look at the way that people are dressed around us. See? Everyone's in a dress, or in a suit with a tie… and you… you still have your leather jacket on."

"I like my jacket."

Courtney started to laugh again. She was sure that Jason understood what she was trying to say. He wasn't nearly as dense as people wanted to think he was. Jason had a hidden intelligence that shined in his eyes, one that people wouldn't see unless they looked for it, and most people chose not to look for anything that was redeeming in her husband. They tried to get her to see that as well. Or at least his brother did. Courtney was so glad that she didn't listen. She would have lost out on someone that she loved so much. "I know you like your jacket, and I like your jacket, too. I'm just saying…"

"We're going to pay the same amount of money, and we're going to give a tip that's probably better than the tip that anyone is going to give. If they don't like the fact that I have my jacket on… then they can just go somewhere else. I could buy this place right now if I wanted to."

"Why don't we see how it tastes, first? We haven't been here, yet. Thank you for agreeing to try this place out with me. They gave it pretty good reviews in the paper, and since it's so rare that we ever get to do something together…"

"I'm sorry for that," Jason said softly, rarely feeling the urge to apologize for anything that he had done in his life, but knowing that his wife deserved a chance at true happiness, and while she may have had some sort of happiness with him, and he certainly had some with her, there was also something that was being denied to her because of her relationship with him. "You know that if I could be a different person for you I would do it in a heartbeat…"

"I know that, Jason. But I know that you think that this lifestyle that you have is important to you. I might not agree with it all the time. In fact, I don't really agree with it at all, but I love you. And when you love someone you find a way to accept them for who they are and what they do."

"Elizabeth couldn't…"

"Elizabeth's a different person than I am. I mean, I hate violence, but look at me… I grew up without a father who was even there. Elizabeth's parents were both doctors, weren't they? Even when they weren't around they could still shower her and her sister with things that made it seem like they cared. Me? I had to fend for myself a lot of the time. Dad didn't leave us with anything, and my mom… she always had a few problems of her own." Courtney loved her mother dearly, but there were plenty of times when she wished that she would have been the daughter of someone else. Anyone else. Then she met Tracy, and was glad that she wasn't Tracy's daughter. "I know that things can't be as picture perfect as I want them, and I accept that."

"You just deserve more than I can give you… more than this life gives you."

"I have everything that I want, Jason. Everything that I really want and that I absolutely need…"

"Except for a child…"

Courtney lowered her eyes, "I'm not going to lie. It would have been wonderful to have that baby around, to be able to hold him or her and look into their eyes and see a part of both of us inside of it. But, I have a family, a family that I never would have had if I wouldn't have come here. Besides, I believe in miracles. There's almost no chance that I can get pregnant, but there isn't no chance at all. And, even if we never have a child… even if I never hear someone call me mother, I'll still feel like my life with you wasn't a waste of time."

While the two continued to talk with one another on one end of the restaurant there was another person who was busy trying to look casual. She hated it when she needed to dress up, but she knew that there were times when it happened. It was funny the way that things turned out. She was just looking around the town, trying to get a feel for it when she found them. Jason Morgan and his wife. Sam didn't know much about the woman, and didn't care. Jason was the one who made the headlines, Jason was the one who she needed to deal with. Courtney was just there, and if she got in the way Sam wouldn't hesitate in cutting her down.

Sam's dress fit her figure perfectly. Although she may have hated dressing up with the deepest of passion nobody could deny that she looked excellent when she was doing it. Sam would fit in with the elite of Port Charles society if she could find a way to get rid of the tough girl mentality that she had acquired during her time, but that would not be who she was. If Sam McCall acted differently it would be against everything she believed in.

A man walked up to her, "Can I buy you a drink, beautiful?"

Sam turned her head to face him and took a bite of the pretzel that was in her hand, "Thank you, but no…"

"Come on, just one drink…"

"Listen, I'm sure you're a great guy and all, I can see it in your eyes… but I don't swing that way." Sam was lying. She certainly was not a lesbian, although she saw nothing wrong with people who were. But she didn't want to deal with some guy that was hitting on her while she was working. Sometimes there was an underlying cost at being as beautiful as she was, and Sam was quickly realizing just what that cost was.

"I don't mind. Maybe I can convert you."

Sam smiled sweetly as she pushed the stool out of the way and gently rubbed the inside of his thigh with her shoe, getting higher and higher until she found her mark. "Listen, if you don't walk away then I'm going to be forced to make sure that you never spawn a child that is nearly as perverted as you are. You want to see what a three inch heel does to your reproductive object? I don't think you do, but if you're curious… I'll be all too happy to oblige."

The man gulped and then backed away, "I'm sorry, lady, I didn't know that you would take it like that. I hope you find someone who you can be with…"

Sam smiled, pleased with herself. He really was cute, maybe someone that she could see herself having a night with, but that wasn't on the agenda. Port Charles was not a town that she stopped in to have a little fun, she did it because she needed to do something to save her brother. Danny was important to her, the most important person in her life, the only reason why she didn't just stay at sea.

With the pest gone she could continue to listen in on their conversation. She was close enough to hear them, and yet she blended in so seamlessly with the crowd. One thing took her by surprise: the softness in Jason's voice. Out of the corner of her eye she saw him as he reached over and gently placed his hand over Courtney's.

"Jason… you never did tell me why you decided to do this."

"Do I have to have a reason to take my wife out to a fancy dinner when she deserves one?"

"I'm just curious is all. I mean, it isn't my birthday… it isn't our anniversary, and even then, I have to drag you to these kinds of things."

"Well then let me show you just how willing I was to do this," Jason unzipped the front of her jacket and took it off, revealing his shirt that was underneath. Courtney was used to seeing just a simple t-shirt of some bland color, but, instead, she found herself staring at a button down shirt that was a beautiful dark shade of blue. He looked amazing in it. "See?"

"It's like a late Christmas present…"

"Courtney, I might not be able to always give you things that I want to give you, you know that. You know that no matter how much I try there's always going to be something that is threatening to push me away from you, and even though I don't want to ever be away from you I might not ever have a choice…"

"Jason, that's never going to happen."

Jason held her hand tighter, "I never want it to happen, but you never know if it will or if it won't. Please don't fill your head with false dreams of nothing ever happening to me, because in the end you might get hurt, and I wouldn't be able to live with myself if something like that happened."

Courtney was scared by the sudden change in tone of his voice. The way that he seemed so foreboding, almost scared. "What's going on… I want you to tell me, right now. Tell me, Jason. Please."

"Sonny thinks that we might not make it out of this one with our freedom, Courtney. He thinks that there might be a chance that John Durant can take us down for everything that we've done. I don't know why he thinks it, but deep down I think it, too. I don't want to lose you, but it might happen."

Courtney shook her head, "That's never going to happen! I won't let it!"

"Don't, Courtney… don't make it harder."

"He doesn't have anything against you, you know that!"

"I know, but that could change. Please, no matter what, just remember that I'm happy for what we had with each other. No matter how long it is, how short it is. If it ends tomorrow, if it keeps on going until we're both old and grey, I love you. I'll always love you."

The woman had to fight back the tears that were threatening to consume her very soul. She was looking at the man that she had loved more than anyone else in the world. And she didn't want to lose him, because she felt that losing Jason would destroy her. So, if only for a moment, she wanted to keep him close. Courtney leaned forward and kissed her husband, gripping his hand with all the strength she could muster.

Sam looked at the two of them embraced. Seeing enough, she got out of her seat, paid for the soda that she was drinking, and walked off.

Port Charles, Park-

"You know, you're going to have to talk to me some time…"

"I didn't ask you to follow me."

"Yeah, well, I thought you could have used someone to talk with."

"Then why have I been ignoring you the whole time?"

"Because you're stubborn like that."

Damian sighed and turned around. No matter how much he tried to ditch Brook, she found a way to follow him. "I'm sorry, I just have a lot to deal with. I'm sorry that she attacked you like that, too. She shouldn't have."

"Well, you're not together anymore, are you?"

"No, we aren't."

"Good," Brook walked over to him and kissed him, wrapping her arms around his neck. She had wanted to do it for so long, and it felt like everything made sense to her… now that Maxie was out of the way, they could be together.


	78. Pull Away

His eyes closed for a second and he found himself almost enjoying what was happening, having the warmth of another person's lips on his own when he thought that it would never happen again. In his mind he imagined the two of them kissing, him and Maxie. More than that, he imagined the two of them together again, getting through their problems and finding a union that was so strong that it would be able to get passed everything, no matter the cost. But Damian knew that such things did not exist anymore, it was all just in his imagination.

Brook couldn't help but feel the connection between them. The one that she thought existed from the moment that they met. Their souls becoming intertwined together and building up until they had a union that was so pure and beautiful. The dream of every little girl. To fall in love with the prince that she wanted more than anything else in the world. How many had found that dream? Not too many, and now, Brook was among those who had. Or so she wanted to believe.

When his eyes opened up he realized what was going on. Although it had only been a single flash of time, barely a few seconds, it felt like it was so much longer than that, and he felt like he was cheating on the memory of himself and his ex-girlfriend, which, despite the way that they may have ended their relationship, was not something that he wanted to do. "Brook…"

"What?"

"I'm sorry…"

"For what?"

Damian pulled away from her and turned around, "That shouldn't have happened, Brook. I care about you, a lot. You're a dear friend to me, but that's all you are… that's all you're ever going to be to me."

Brook felt the dream stripped away without any warning. The tears threatened to take her entire body, but she refused to let them win. "Hey… what are you talking about? You know that you've always been attracted to me. I can see it in your eyes, the way that you look at me… everything."

"You're beautiful, Brook."

"Then?"

"Beauty isn't the only thing that I need in order to fall in love with someone, all right?" He was becoming irate. Everything that was crumbling around him just seemed to get even worse. "You're pretty, anybody would be lucky to have you…"

"But I only want you."

"That's a problem, then, because I don't want you."

"Maxie's out of the picture now!"

"And that's supposed to matter?" He asked. "Listen to yourself, Brook. You think that just because I broke up with Maxie that I'm going to instantly jump into the arms of another girl, and, if it happens to be you, that's all the better! It doesn't work like that! I don't work like that! I've fallen in love with one person in my entire life, Brook. A single person, and that person just broke my heart less than two days ago. What do you think I'm going through? Do you even know?"

"Yeah, I do know what it feels like to have your heart broken. I didn't know what it felt like until right now, until you broke mine…"

"Don't do this to yourself, Brook. You deserve someone who can love you the way that you deserve to be loved. You deserve someone who can give you everything that you want in life…"

"You can give me that!"

"No, I can't!"

"Why not?"

Damian rubbed his temples, the migraine that was forming had gone from a dull ache to an almost pounding thud that threatened to render him completely useless. "I'm not ready…"

"I can wait."

"You might be waiting for a long time. Do you think I want to know that you're going to be looking at me with your eyes telling me that you're just waiting for that one moment where I'll actually find a way to be with you? I'm sorry, it's not going to happen. I'm still in love with her, Brook. I can't turn it off."

"I'm not giving up on you… on us."

"There is no us!"

Brook didn't want to believe what he was saying, didn't want to think that everything that she had done was just for nothing. But, the way he looked at her, there was something in his eyes that showed he wasn't kidding around. He didn't care about her, not like that. It broke her heart to see those eyes, especially directed at her. "I hate you!" Her entire center stripped, Brook ran away.

Damian sank against one of the trees that they were near. He didn't even notice it, but they were right by the gazebo. He could see it in the distance. With some reservations, he walked towards it, the emotions churning inside of him, telling him that he needed to do something else, anything else, but he fought them, fought them with all the stubbornness that he had gotten from his father, and Sonny's bullheaded ways were legendary.

When the boy found his way to the gazebo he walked inside of it and looked up at the light that was in the center. Everything that they did when they were together, all the quaint and tender moments that made them who they were, that established their love flashed in that bright light, and he was unable to contain his grief. The emotions poured out of him… and he wept, leaning against the banister, his soft sniffling echoing in the distance.

Corinthos Household-

Carly was still unsure of how she was going to deal with everything that was on her platter, still unsure if she could even do it. Her father… her father wanted to find a way to strip her of everything that she knew, everything she loved. Just so that she could be protected by her daddy for one time in her life. Carly didn't need saving, not from anyone. She was her own woman, she didn't need the help of anyone… or did she?

Seeing Sonny walk in made her realize that she did need someone. She got up and ran into his arms, the pent up rage and anger coming up and out. She sobbed, "Sonny…" she whispered his name over and over again.

"What the hell is wrong with you?"

"What are you talking about?"

"I got a call from Mike saying that you just decided to leave our child, the child that you wanted to spend time with alone, over at Kelly's, for no reason at all…"

"You don't think that I had a reason?"

"I don't think that there could ever be a reason that is good enough for you to just up and abandon Morgan like that!" To Sonny there was no job more important than being a parent. He would make all the sacrifices in the world just to do that job, and, in some ways, he had. "So why don't you give me one good reason why I shouldn't be upset at you for doing something like that to our baby!"

"I didn't abandon him! How could you even think that I would do something like that? I fought tooth and nail to keep Morgan safe while he was in my stomach, do you think that something like that would change the minute he came out?"

"Give me a reason!"

"You want a reason? Fine, I'll give you a reason! I found my father, Sonny!"

Sonny did not expect that as an answer. There were some things that he couldn't prepare for, and Carly finding her father, that was one of them. "That still doesn't excuse your actions…"

"My father is John Durant."

"What?"

"You heard me, Sonny. My father, your father in law, is the man that wants to take you down more than anything in the world. John Durant is my father. I'm a Durant, I've got a legacy of taking you down…"

"Carly…"

"So do you see now why I decided that I couldn't have Morgan around me? Do you realize the pain I've been going through ever since I found out? I didn't want Morgan to be scared, I didn't want him to know that something was wrong. But I know he did, and I didn't want to make it worse."

"How…"

"My mother," Carly said with spite in her voice. "She knew the whole time. She said that she's always known from the moment I was born that John was my father… she knew when I asked her, too. But she kept it hidden."

"Why would she do something like that?"

"Because she decided that she could play God with my future… with the wellbeing of our children."

"Carly…"

"No, don't try and defend her, Sonny. We both know that you can't. What my mother did… it's something that I can't forgive her for. Certainly not now, maybe not ever. She knew how nervous I was about what could happen. She knew what I wanted to do, why I wanted to find my father… it wasn't for me, it wasn't because I wanted someone to send me a Christmas present that I could say was from my daddy. It was so that I could protect my children in case something came up! I explained that to her time and time again, and all she did was ignore me. She didn't care…"

"She had to have a reason." Sonny wasn't sure that he agreed with the reason, but Bobbie certainly wasn't her daughter. She didn't act on her impulses, not anymore at least. No, she had more important things to do, like be a mother, be a nurse, and be a grandmother. "I'm sorry, Carly."

"You should be sorry. I want your support, and you attack me."

"You should have told someone."

"I needed time to be alone, why can't anyone understand that? Don't you people realize what I'm going through?"

"No, Carly, we don't. Because we don't know what it's like to be related to John Durant…"

"Neither do I!"

"Maybe I can use this to my advantage…"

"Sonny, you can't! He wants to take you down, don't you understand that?"

"I know… but if he wants to have a relationship with you, with our children, do you think that's going to happen if he decides to destroy my life?"

"I don't know…"

Sonny turned away for a moment, looking as Max brought Morgan in. "Thanks for taking him while I talked to my wife, Max."

"No problem, Mister C." Max liked Morgan a lot.

Sonny moved over to the wet bar and picked up a glass. He was thinking about the possibilities. His wife was John's daughter… yes, there were ways that he could use that. He finally had something that he could use against Durant.

Carly looked at her husband, his back turned to her, and she knew that his mind was focused on something else. The only problem with that was that she was also certain that he wasn't focused on her problem. No, he was focusing on something other than her. What happened to the support? She needed the support.


	79. Unbreakable Bond

Queen of the Elven City- Yes, it would be great to see him happy again, wouldn't it? But then where would the angst be? No promises one way or the other, mostly because I'm not sure one way or the other…

Story-

Scorpio Household-

Maxie had been in her room shortly after the fight had broken out, tending to her wounds. The whole time she wondered about how far she would go. There was a time when Maxie was a bright and innocent young girl who wouldn't hurt a fly, who wanted to ride unicorns around the world with her little sister for as long as possible. While that little girl probably rested deep inside of her, the child was certainly buried so deeply inside that Maxie wouldn't have been able to tell if that person really existed anymore. No, it was more about finding a way to take the bitch who had ruined her life out. She fantasized about tearing Brook's hair out, pulling it until she managed to have clumps of it in her fingers, feeling the threads and secretly loving the way it felt. She wanted to throw Brook out on the streets of Port Charles, or out on the streets of some interstate highway, just looking for a way to get out of town.

Maxie wanted a lot of things, but she knew that she wouldn't get them. No matter how mad she may have been at Brook Lynn for what she had done, Maxie also knew that there was plenty that she couldn't do. Despite the hatred in her soul for the other girl, Maxie did not want her dead. Hurt, a lot, but not dead. She just wanted, more than anything, to get everything back to the way that it used to be. But, if the time that she had spent after the fight with Brook showed, Maxie knew that it wasn't an option. They had passed the line where they couldn't come back from. The point of no return. And she had been the one who did that. Maxie didn't have to attack Brook, she really didn't. And maybe, in the back of her mind, Maxie didn't want to do it, but when she saw the girl, all alone, at Kelly's, she saw her opportunity, and she wanted, needed, to get the rage out. Brook may well have been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The young girl didn't bother to stick around the restaurant once the fight was over. She waited for a few moments, hoping that Damian would come back and see if she was all right, but when she realized that he wasn't coming, when she realized that he was going to stay with Brook instead of her, she also came to the realization that she was on her own. She remembered looking back at Elizabeth and Mike, who had finally come out of the back after everything was over with. She remembered the way that they both looked at her. What she remembered most of all, though, was the way that Mike, the man who had always been warm and welcoming, even before he knew that he had a grown grandson, shooed her out of the place without any sort of sympathy in his voice. The harsh words that Mike gave, and the look of disdain on Elizabeth's face made Maxie take a look at herself, and what she saw was not something that she liked.

What had happened to her? She'd broken up with people before. She'd even had her heart broken many times in her life, but nothing had ever hit her quite as hard as what had happened with Damian, because that was what meant the most to her. Before, everything that she had been through had been something different. With Lucky it was a crush, her first real crush on someone who was right there and wasn't busy being on the covers of various magazines that she would never have a chance of actually being around but wanted to spend time with regardless. With Kyle it wasn't a real relationship, it was him taking advantage of her and trying to use her in order to better himself and get what he wanted. With Damian… it was a true relationship. Not a one way street, like with Lucky. Not a game of manipulation, like with Kyle. It went both ways, they both got what they wanted, no, what they needed, out of the relationship, and they were both better people because of it.

But while Damian had continued to be a better person because of his relationship with Maxie, Maxie herself had done a complete turnaround. Everything that she had become, everything that she had learned, all the growing that she had done while she was with him… it was all eradicated, because of her own stupidity. That was what hurt the most. She could have tried to tell herself that it was Brook's fault, and maybe she even believed it on some level, but more than that, Maxie knew that the fault truly rested on her and her alone. She was the only one who managed to do anything wrong. It was her fault. She didn't have to sleep with him… she didn't have to make it seem like there was nothing wrong.

Maxie picked up her cell phone and looked at the number that was displayed. It was his number. How many messages had she left on his phone? How many times did she need to say that she was sorry about what she had done? Did he not believe her? Did he think that she was just saying it in order to get into his good graces again? That wasn't the truth. She truly did feel like she needed to apologize for the mistakes that she had made, but she wanted to do it to his face. More than anything else in the world she wanted him to listen. Maxie wanted him to care about her again.

Throwing the phone onto the ground in a huff, Maxie rested her head on the pillow of her bed and continued to sob. It was all that she had been doing ever since they had broken up, ever since she knew that the relationship was completely done. All of it… all of it was because of her.

Georgie had gotten home some time before, but she had kept herself quiet. The last thing she wanted to do was deal with her big sister when she didn't even want to admit that she had one. But there were memories of their time together all around her. Pictures, everywhere that Georgie turned there were pictures. Of the two of them as they grew up into the young women that they had become. From the time when they both dressed up as Princesses for Halloween down to the picture that Maxie and Georgie took at Maxie's graduation ceremony. The smile that was on Georgie's face showed just how proud she was of Maxie, how she saw the potential in Maxie that she had always seen, and how it was finally, after so many years, being tapped into.

But, with all the reminders, Georgie couldn't deny the connection that she had with her older sister, and she couldn't ignore the fact that, no matter what, Maxie was her sister and she would always love her. Georgie had passed by the door and she had heard Maxie crying. Before, she would have ignored it, decided that Maxie had brought it upon herself and it was beyond time that she dealt with the consequences of her own action, but the same couldn't be said when she heard the girl crying as she made one more journey from one end of the hall to the other. What had started as just a trip to grab one of her books to do some of her homework had become the breaking point, the moment where Georgie had to go inside, because she couldn't live with herself if she didn't give her dear big sister the help that she needed.

Without knocking, since she knew that Maxie was inside the room and bawling her eyes out, Georgie walked in and saw the pathetic sight in front of her. Maxie was there, and she was crying, but she looked like a mess. Her eyes were so red, and her body was trembling. There was nothing that made Maxie look like the confident woman that she once was, the woman that was brought out when she finally met someone who was right for her. Georgie didn't want to see that person go away.

"Come on, Maxie… I know how hard it's been on you, but you need to actually get up and get ready to face the world."

"I don't want to face the world… not without him. This would be so much easier if I knew that there was nothing I could do, Georgie. You know, like when I thought that he could have been put away for his entire life… it would have hurt me so much, but I would have been able to accept it, because there was nothing I could do. Or, when I thought I was going to lose him because of the accident. I tried to make peace with it… there are things that I can't stop, I understand that, I accept that. But he's just right on the other end of town… and he won't even give me the chance to try and find a way to make everything right again."

"Do you think you deserve that chance, Maxie?"

"Georgie!"

"I don't mean it to sound mean or anything. I really don't, but, you need to understand… what you did was wrong. What you did to him was horrible. You made him believe, even for a second, that you were unfaithful to him, because you were. I was here, Maxie. I saw the way that you looked at him, I saw that glint in your eyes, when you were satisfied with everything that had happened. That's the way that you look when you're at your worst. I thought that person was gone… I was hoping that it was gone forever, but I was wrong."

"I didn't mean to do something like that!"

"Don't fool yourself into thinking that you didn't act of your own free will, Maxie, because you did. You knew what you were doing, you were completely aware of it from the moment it happened. You thought you saw what you wanted to see, you were looking for a reason, any reason, to bring your ideas about Brook and Damian being together out, to make it seem like you were right. If you would have just trusted him everything would have been different. I want you to be happy again, Maxie. I truly do, but if you want me to feel sorry for you, if you want me to try and make you feel better because you became the victim here, I can't do that."

"So why did you even bother coming up here then?"

"Because I wanted you to know that if you need someone to talk with, I'm going to be right here waiting."

"To tell me that I'm an idiot…"

"Sometimes you need to hear that you're an idiot. It might not be the easiest thing in the world to accept, but it makes you feel better. Remember what went on when I thought I was in love with Lucas? After the prom, after everything that happened, you helped me see a part of myself that I didn't think existed. You helped me just as much, if not more, than Dillon did. I hated you when you told me that I was stupid to believe that he was ever in love with me… but now, I'm glad that you did. Because it was what I needed to hear at that time."

Maxie finally brought her head up fully, no longer giving Georgie the small look of her eyes that were shielded by her knees. "I don't know how I'm going to go keep on going without him, Georgie. He was so important to me. I loved him so much."

"You'll find a way."

"How do you know?"

"Because when mom lost our father to the life that he lives she didn't know what she was going to do, either. When she thought that she would never have anything to live for she found a way. Frisco may have broken our mother, but she didn't leave her completely useless. I know how much you hate being compared to mom, Maxie, but you need to know that you really are like her in a lot of ways. You have her strength, the passion that she tries to keep from everyone around her. You might not believe that, but I do. I know it, because I see it in you."

"And if I can't?"

"Then you've got someone that you can lean on. I'll always be your little sister, but I'll also always be the one that you can depend on." Georgie reached over and touched Maxie's cheek softly, looking to wipe away some of the tears that were still on her face. When she got a little too close to the eye, Maxie turned away. "Maxie, come on, I'm just going to dry your eyes…"

"I don't need you to dry my eyes, Georgie. I'm fine."

Georgie reached over and got a good look at her sister's face. There wasn't anything really 'wrong' with it, but she would be lying if she said that she was completely unable to tell that there were a few areas that seemed to be red, or bruised. "Maxie… what happened? Did you run into something?"

"No…"

"Well?"

"I…" Maxie didn't know if she could tell her sister, but the look in Georgie's eyes showed her that if there was anyone that she could trust… it would always be her little sister. The person who would always be there for her, even when things got a little too tough, when she thought that the world around her no longer made sense. Georgie would always be the person that she could lean on. And she appreciated that more than anyone could ever know. "I got into a fight…"

"With who?"

"Brook… at Kelly's… just a few hours ago…"

"Maxie!"

"I didn't want to fight her, Georgie!" Maxie quickly found herself defending her actions, as she always found herself when something like that came up, mostly because she felt that she needed to justify them, even though there wasn't much she could do in order to actually justify them. "I didn't mean to do it…"

"But…"

"But she was there, and she was alone… and I don't know, I just snapped. She looked so smug and full of herself that I needed to wipe the smirk off of her face."

"She was probably eating something… god, Maxie!"

"I won't apologize for fighting with her. She broke up my relationship with the guy that I thought I would share the rest of my life with. Maybe she didn't have everything to do with it, but she had something to do with it. You can't deny that… you can't tell me that she didn't want to take him from me, can you?"

"No, I can't." Georgie knew that Maxie was not completely in the wrong. If someone had tried to take Dillon away from her that girl would find that there was going to be hell to pay. Georgie may have looked like she had no clue what she was doing if she was forced to get into a fight of some sort, but if it came to fighting for her boyfriend, the girl would not go down without a slobber knocker. Her own inner Felicia, as well as her great grandmother Mariah would come out in those moments. "But Brook can't be faulted for having a crush on someone…"

"She acted on it!"

"Not that much… you brought it out."

"Maxie," Mac came up, having entered moments before. There was no welcoming look in his eyes. "Do you want to tell me why I got a call from Elizabeth saying that you were in a fight at Kelly's?"


	80. People Can Surprise You

Samsonlove- Sonny's a very dense man, but it doesn't change the fact that deep down his heart will likely always do the thing that places the needs of the people that he loves before he puts his own needs out, or at least that's how it should be. The writers have forgotten what made Sonny so interesting and compelling. Brook allows herself to be victimized and shows just how much of her tough little rocker girl act is just a farce. Maxie's Maxie… and Damian's pain is just starting, but there will be a calm before the storm.

Story-

Georgie wasted no time attempting to salvage the good name of her older sister, despite only the day before believing that Maxie had no name to salvage. Thus was the quandary that she would always find herself in. Sometimes, Georgie could be such a pushover. "Dad, what happened wasn't that big a deal…"

"I asked your sister a question, Georgie. Not you."

"But dad…"

"Don't you have some homework that you need to do?" Mac asked, looking for an excuse, any excuse, to get his younger daughter out of the room so that he could speak with his older daughter. He didn't expect Georgie to just stand around while Maxie got grilled, but at the same time there wasn't much that she could do. Mac and Maxie needed to have a serious talk about things.

"No, I've done all my homework." It wasn't a lie. Anything she would have been doing would have just been because she wanted to have some more extra credit to further assure herself of the top spot in her school. Maybe having a valedictorian would be incentive enough for her mother to actually make an appearance at graduation. If not, at least Georgie was assured of a place in the Port Charles high record books.

"Then maybe you should go and check your answers over again and make sure that they're correct…"

"But…"

"Georgie," Maxie reached over and touched her little sister gently on the shoulder. "Everything's going to be all right. I'm going to be fine. I want to talk with him, okay? Just go and do something. Get something to eat, talk to Dillon…"

"Not that second one. I don't trust the boy much right about now."

"You never did," Georgie quickly countered.

"And when I find out that one of my daughters has gotten into a fight I can only assume that it's because of the influence that a certain someone has over her, and that same person happens to be your boyfriend's best friend. You see what I'm trying to say, Georgie?"

"I thought you said you were going to stop judging them…"

"I said that I was willing to try and not see the worst in them, but when I hear about things like this what do you expect me to do? Give them a pat on the back and say that they did something to make the male gender proud? Sorry, but that isn't going to happen. Georgie, please, I'm not going to ask nicely again, leave, and don't stand by the door so you can overhear what's going on."

Georgie sighed and gave a sympathetic look over to her sister, mouthing that she was sorry about the fact that she needed to leave Maxie alone with their father, but what else could she do? She was also upset that after everything they had been through, everything that had been said, Mac still wasn't willing to accept that there was something decent in people who wanted to get close to his daughters. Sometimes it was justified, sometimes it wasn't. Knowing Mac, he probably still held a little against Lucky for the crush that Maxie had on him all those years ago.

Maxie heard the door close and she couldn't help but think that it paralleled the closing of the iron bars of the Port Charles Jail cells. She backed up against the bed, leaning against the wall so that she could sit somewhat alert instead of just looking like she was defeated. While she may have been emotionally crushed, while her world may have been spinning uncontrollably around her, Maxie didn't want her father to know that. She didn't want him to be able to gloat. But she knew that if he did he would, at least to himself. Mac was like that, always wanting, needing, to prove that he was right to his daughters.

"I told Elizabeth that I didn't need to hear the details about the fight from her over the phone. I told her that I would be able to come and talk to you and that you would tell me what I needed to know. Don't make me a liar, Maxie. I want to know what happened. I have a right to know what happened."

"You should have asked her…"

"Come on…"

"I'm not a kid anymore, dad," Maxie replied bitterly. "I don't have to tell you everything that goes on in my life. You know, legally, I'm an adult now… I can make my own decisions."

"You've always made your own decisions, even when you weren't an adult. It's one of the things that I love about you the most… even though it's also one of the things that makes me worry about you so much. You're an independent woman, Maxie. You're more confident in yourself than I've ever seen in any other person. I respect that so much… but it scares me. It scares me because sometimes you make decisions that I don't understand, that I can't even begin to think about someone doing in their right mind."

"So you're saying I'm crazy now?"

"Of course not. I think that when you get into a mood where you feel the need to do something, anything, to get what you want, you take whatever steps are necessary and don't care about the consequences. Look, they're not going to do anything over at Kelly's. You didn't cause any damages in your fight… I just want to know what happened, and why."

"Because Brook Lynn Ashton is a little bitch…"

"Brook?" Mac cocked an eyebrow. "Maxie, she's one of your sister's best friends… she's one of my good friend's daughter… how could you do something like that?"

"Just because Georgie likes her, and she's Lois's daughter doesn't mean that I have to like her, too. I don't like her, not at all…"

"Why not? She seems like such a nice young girl."

"That's what she wants you to think, dad," Maxie replied with a scoff. Of course Brook would have people under her spell, thinking that there wasn't a single thing that was wrong with the perfect little angel girl. It made Maxie sick to her stomach to think about something like that. "Brook's not nearly as perfect as you want to believe she is. She's a mean spirited little tramp!"

"You're still not giving me any good reasons…"

Maxie sighed and scrunched her knees to her chest. "Daddy… I screwed everything up…"

"Honey, nothing bad happened," Mac reached over to comfort her. "I'm sure this is all going to blow over…"

"Not with that," Maxie replied. "I cheated on him… I found one of Kyle's friends at school and I… I did something that I can never take back, and I did it because I wanted to hurt him more than anything else…"

Mac was surprised. Sure, he had always thought that it would have been good for the two of them to actually spend some time apart, break up if that was necessary, but the way that she said it made it seem like she had done something he thought she would never do. After all, she spoke so highly of him that it was surprising. "You cheated on your boyfriend…"

"He's not my boyfriend anymore…" Maxie remarked sadly. "I wish that he was, I wish that he was still my boyfriend so much, but he isn't… he's gone now. He's never going to forgive me for what I did, and I don't blame him. I wouldn't forgive myself, either."

"Honey…"

"So go ahead, dad, gloat all you want. Tell me that you were just waiting for something like this to happen, that you wanted us to break up because you knew that he was bad for me, that everything he would do would just lead to my suffering. Go ahead! You know you want to…"

Mac grabbed her and held her tightly, "I never wanted you to feel this kind of pain, Maxie. Never."

Maxie believed him and she closed her eyes, sobbing gently against his chest. What she needed was someone who could comfort her. It may have come from one of the least likely places, but at least it came. "I'm sorry… for everything…"

"Don't apologize, sweetie, you didn't do anything wrong." In that moment, Mac found nothing to gloat about, nothing worth making a scene over. No, what he needed to do at that moment in time was be a good father to his daughter, and he was determined to do it, no matter what the cost.

Kelly's-

She may have been at a restaurant before, but she certainly didn't get anything to eat there. Sam was a burger and fries girl through and through. What she hated was the way that people just seemed to hype up expensive food. What was wrong with a little fast food, so long as it tasted good?

She sat at the counter of the restaurant, looking over the menu. The freebie that she had gotten earlier that morning told her that the place did have some good food, and she didn't feel like exploring every nook and cranny of Port Charles while she looked for another place to eat. Maybe another day, when she didn't have so much on her mind.

Elizabeth was still doing some final cleaning up of the place after the fight. There wasn't much that needed to be done, but since there was a relatively steady flow of people after she didn't have the time to do it like she would have wanted. Elizabeth even had to put a little sign that said there was some broken glass around the area, which she had just finished sweeping up. Her mind couldn't help but focus on what had happened at that particular spot. Maxie and Brook were fighting, and it looked like they were willing to do whatever it took to hurt the other person. "If you're ready I'll be with you in a few seconds, Sam."

"Sure, take your time, I don't have anything that I need to do." She had done what she had told herself she needed to do for the day. She had found Jason Morgan and she had done a little bit of research on him as a person, not as the legend that they seemed so intent on hyping up in the papers. No, the Jason Morgan that she had seen was something else, something special. A person who did not fit the mold. Someone that gentle, that soft spoken… the same person that was the cold blooded killer? The right hand man of Sonny Corinthos? Sam couldn't believe it, she didn't want to believe it.

"I probably won't serve your food, I just did a little extra time because of what happened earlier…"

"What happened earlier?"

"Two girls got into a fight right over there…"

"I always miss the action, don't I?"

Elizabeth shook her head, "Believe me, you didn't miss anything. I didn't think that I would ever see the two of them get into a fight. I know they didn't like each other very much, but they always seemed to be civil."

"Elizabeth, you're a woman, tell me that you haven't wanted to clean the clock of another girl who you were civil with when you were around them… you know that you won't be able to say that you didn't have that urge."

"I never acted on it…"

"I have," Sam replied. "I might be small, but believe me, I don't take that kind of crap from nobody…"

"I admire that… me… I'm kind of afraid of what could happen. I just don't want people to be so angry at each other."

"You really are something, you know that…"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It's just that from the moment I met you I saw that you were just this kind of person who always believed that there was good in everyone. You always saw the white instead of the black, focused on what was good, even if there was something there that you couldn't deny…"

"That's not exactly true," Elizabeth replied, thinking about how much she had seen the darkness in Ric, and Jason, and how it scared her away. "I've had my moments where I couldn't ignore what was right in front of my face. But, you know, I really do believe that everyone has some good qualities in them, even when they're not expected to."

"Does it ever surprise you?"

"Does what ever surprise me?"

"I mean, do you ever have this feeling about someone that you think is so on the money, and then you realize a few moments later that maybe, just maybe, you were wrong, that the person isn't who you've heard them to be, or who you thought they would be?"

"Plenty of times. Port Charles has a lot of people like that, Sam. Probably more than places ten times its size. You just have to get to know the people here in order to understand them… they might surprise you."

"Yeah," Sam grinned, "I guess they might."


	81. Mother Daughter Time

Port Charles-

Why did everything have to go the exact opposite way that she wanted it? It seemed like that was the curse of her life. She was blessed with so many gifts, she knew that. She had a voice that most people who had musical careers would kill to have, and her looks weren't exactly horrible. She wasn't obese, and she had a father who was literally one of the richest people in New York, or at least belonged to a family that was. They ranked on the lower end of the Fortune 500. With all the things that were going for her, Brook Lynn Ashton should have had the world handed to her on a silver platter, but that was not the way that it was. Not really. No, Brook never got what she wanted. Not really. What she wanted was to have a father who was there for her. Not someone who just flaked out on her constantly, there only for a few seconds before he returned to his world. A world that did not involve her in any way. She wanted a mother who was a real mother, not someone who tried so hard to be both mother and best friend. Most of all, Brook wanted to feel the love that she had seen so many people have in her life. That she had heard so many songs about when she was listening to the radio, or at concerts. Love was such an overly hyped construction, it was maddening, and very disenchanting.

And what happened to her? She took a chance and came to Port Charles because she wanted to get to know the person who had really been her father only in name, who she still loved because he would always be her daddy and she would always be his princess. They weren't as close as she would have liked them to be, but Brook knew that they were closer than they were before. They shared things, things that she never would have had the chance to share otherwise, and she was happy. God had even blessed her with something of a miracle, allowing her mother to stay with her when Brook felt that there was a chance that everything could have been taken away from her. More than that, though, Brook thought she found something that she always wanted. Brook thought that she had found love… only to have it rejected. Her heart still ached from the way that he looked at her after they kissed. She felt every single spark of passion that came from her lips, but what came from Damian? Next to nothing. Absolutely nothing. All he wanted to do was talk about Maxie, talk about the love that he had lost.

Brook didn't know where she was going, all she knew was that she was putting distance between herself and the boy who she thought would be there for her when she needed it, only to find that he was like so many other people in her life: all talk and no action. Instead of supporting her feelings he spurned her, focused on his own needs. Brook would have expected something like that from the Quartermaine's, they were the most selfish people in the world that she could think of, but from someone who was so sweet and kind like Damian? Certainly not.

Finding a nearby bench, Brook sank into it and slowly allowed herself to weep like the scared and hurt little girl that she was on the inside, the part of her personality, her soul, that she didn't like anyone to see, even the people who she cared about, the people that she trusted. Brook wanted more than anything for people to help her get through the pain of her life, but nobody ever seemed able to give her something like that. Why couldn't they help her? Why did she have to do everything alone?

Lois was walking downtown, having found the place where she would make her home for the extended period in which she stayed in Port Charles. The lease was month by month, which was what she needed since she never really knew how long she was going to stay anywhere. Lois wanted to stay in Port Charles, for her daughter, because she knew how much Brook wanted to stay. In a completely unexpected turn of events, Lois found herself turning the corner and finding her daughter. "Baby?" Lois could see that there was something that was bothering Brook. She walked over and sat down next to her daughter, touching her gently on the shoulder. "Brookie, what's wrong?"

"Why does everything have to suck so much?"

"Because if everything was good then life wouldn't be worth living…"

Brook, with her tear filled eyes, glared coldly at her mother. "I don't need your twisted sense of humor right now, Ma. I need my mother… please, can you give me that? Can you stop trying to be my friend for a few minutes and just be my mother?"

"Of course I can, baby." Contrary to what her daughter may have believed, Lois was completely capable of doing the mother thing. She didn't need to always be the jokester, the one who people looked to for a laugh. She just felt that she was better at that, especially with Brook, who always had the attitude that she could take the world on if she wanted to, or needed to.

"Forget it," Brook said, not believing her mother for a second, "This whole idea is stupid…"

"What's wrong, Brookie?" Lois asked, and she got a good look at her daughter's face. There were bruises on her face, under her eye. It wouldn't be a black eye, but it certainly was noticeable, especially since the obvious amount of tears she had shed during the day had wiped away any and all of the makeup that she may have had. "What happened to your face? Come here, let me see," Lois reached over to touch her daughter, only to see Brook recoil quickly. "Brook!"

"Look, Ma, I don't want you to baby me, all right! God, I come to you looking for some sort of motherly compassion and this is what I get? No wonder my life is so horrible!"

"Hey, don't blame this on me, young lady!" Lois said firmly. "I've done a lot of things that I've regretted in my life, especially when it comes to raising you, but I haven't slacked off in being the person that you could always come to for help and support, have I? I'm your mother, dammit, and I deserve to be treated as such in times like this. Now you're going to tell me what happened and you're not going to give me any attitude, do you understand?"

Brook sighed, but she knew that her mother was right, and she knew how lucky she was to have Lois in her life. After all, had it not just been a few days before when she was worried about losing the woman forever? Had Brook not sworn on what was basically a stack of bibles that she would never take her mother for granted again? "I got into a fight…"

"Brook… what did I tell you about fighting?"

"It wasn't my fault, Ma!" Brook said, "I didn't even go in looking for a fight. I was at Kelly's, right, because I had my free period and I was hungry, I skipped lunch to go and get something that didn't taste like crap…"

"Makes sense." High school lunches hadn't really changed in the years that had passed since she was in high school. How many years was that? Lois wouldn't tell.

"So I'm sitting at one of the tables minding my own business, and then she just goes off on me, and I try to calm her down…"

"Who are you talking about?"

"Maxie Jones."

"Mac and Felicia's little girl? Damian's girlfriend?"

"Yes to the first, no to the second. Not anymore… she cheated on him, Ma. She made sure that he found her in bed with some random loser that she knew from high school." Although they hadn't talked very much in the time that she was tagging along beside him, Brook had learned a few things about what had happened, and she listened to every word. After all, she was savoring her victory.

"That doesn't sound like something she would do…"

"You just don't know her very well," Brook replied. "I know her better than you do, and trust me, it's something that she would do. She's a little bitch and she never deserved any of the happiness that he brought her."

"Brookie!"

"I'm not going to apologize for saying that, Ma! It's the truth. If I had a boyfriend that was as good to me as he was there would be no way in hell that I would even think about tossing that away for a second. No way in hell."

"So tell me what happened…"

"She blames me for breaking them up, even though it was her fault. When you were at the hospital I was really, really torn up, you know? I didn't know what was wrong with you, the doctors weren't giving me any sort of answers and I just lost it. I thought I had lost you, and I wasn't ready to deal with something like that. So, I went to the chapel and I prayed for the first time since I was a little girl… I prayed for you to be there, to be safe. But I didn't know if it was going to work, I wasn't sure if I could believe in God…"

"You should always…"

"Don't give me that, all right?" Brook quickly interjected. "Are you really going to tell me with a straight face that you think you could be all nice and calm and devout when someone that you loved so much was in trouble, when you didn't know if they were going to survive or not?"

"No, I guess I can't…"

"See?" Brook nodded. "Dillon tried to help me, but I pushed him away. I didn't want to see any of my family… and then he called Damian, right? So, we hugged when he found me, because he was just there and he was being supportive and telling me that he would help me no matter what happened. He was everything that I needed at that moment, and what I needed the most was someone to lean on. Maxie saw us, and she's always had this crazy idea that I was trying to steal him away from her…"

"You were."

"Mother!"

"Brook, don't even try and hide it from me. I've known that you've had a crush on that boy since the moment you blushed when I asked you what you thought of him after we came here and saw Sonny that one day. I know that you've never thought that Maxie was good enough for him and that you wanted to swoop in and be the person that he needed, but you don't get to play God with his life, or hers… I'm not saying that you were wrong, that what you did was wrong, but you have been trying to pry him away from his girlfriend since we got here…"

"Well it wasn't my fault that they broke up."

"Nobody is saying that it was."

"Maxie is. That's why we got into the fight at Kelly's, because of her anger over her own idiotic mistake. I tried to calm her down, I tried to avoid a fight. She hit me first, and I wasn't going to let her do that to me without fighting back. Remember, you named me Brook Lynn for a reason…"

"You didn't kill her, did you?"

"Damian came in at that moment and pulled us off of each other. He yelled at her for attacking me, and then we left…"

"You left together?"

"He wanted to show that he wasn't going to put up with her little girl games. Can you blame him?"

"No, I can't. I wouldn't be happy if something like that happened to me, either."

"I kissed him, Ma…"

"You what?" Lois was surprised that Brook had been so forward. It wasn't something she usually did.

"I kissed him, because I thought that with Maxie out of the way we could be together… but when I kissed him… he pushed me away. He said that he didn't love me, and that he never would…"

"Brook, you need to give him time…"

"But I gave him time! I gave him time to break up with her!"

"Think of how he broke up with her, though. He's still hurt, and even if he broke up with her in a better way… I saw the way he looked at her, I saw the way he talked about her… Brookie, he was in love with her big time. He's probably still in love with her. It might not ever end. You can't expect someone to get over a love so intense with just a few days." Lois knew that, because she wasn't really over Ned. She knew it wouldn't ever work, but that wasn't the same.

"So you're saying I'll never have him?"

"I'm saying that if it's meant to be between the two of you it will happen. If it isn't… then I'm sorry. But I know that you'll find someone that you can care about, too."

"He's just…"

"He's a Corinthos boy, Brookie. Believe me, I've seen his father in action. Don't you think that Sonny broke more than a few hearts when we were growing up? When he was in school his locker would be filled to the brim with cards on valentines day…"

"Really?"

"Really… now, come on, I'll take you to get something to eat. At a place other than Kelly's," Lois could have told Brook about the move, about the fact that she was not going to be at the mansion any longer, but she kept quiet. After all, it looked like her daughter had enough on her plate for one night.


	82. Making Up For The Past

Corinthos Household-

He could have gone to Kelly's. The room was still his, it would always be his for as long as he felt the need to use it. How ironic it was that he never thought he would really need it again, only to think about it almost all the time. Whenever things got hard, whenever his family life became too hectic for his mind to comprehend, Damian briefly considered fleeing from his problems and finding a way to make them all go away. It was the coward's way out, the easy way out. He knew that, he accepted it, and he didn't mind that he was taking it. Why would he? There was nothing wrong with needing some time alone. It was a lot easier to get that time alone when he was at home… aside from his grandparents, he was pretty much ignored.

Why did he think about the place in Los Angeles as his home? Because, in some way, it would always be his home. It would always be the place that he would say he came from, the place that he grew up, the place where he was made into the person that he had become. It was in Los Angeles that he was born, created. It was in Los Angeles where the part of his soul that he thought would never die actually did die, faded away, to the point where it would almost never come back again. Sure, Damian had felt that spark inside of his being, the same feeling that he knew he lost when Ana-Maria died, but it was just a spark, it would never turn into a flame. It would never burn eternally, like he thought it would.

It may have been the coward's way out, and he may have seriously considered it time and time again, but he wasn't a coward. He had gone through too much with the people that he lived with now, his family who he loved with all his being, to allow himself to tuck his tail and leave. Damian had done that once, and the way that it hurt the people around him, and himself, was so deeply felt that he vowed never to do something like that without a good enough reason again. The last time he left, Michael went through so much trauma. It wasn't fair to the boy to put him through that kind of hell again, just because of his own fears. It was wrong and completely unfounded. He loved Michael too much to do something like that again.

Sonny was still reeling from the big reveal that came when he found out that his father-in-law was John Durant. To say that Sonny didn't believe that his luck had once again bit him in the ass would be a lie. After all, he had a mother-in-law who may have grudgingly accepted him in her life, but who didn't really like him all that much, and now he had a father-in-law who wanted more than anything else in the world to actually put him away for the rest of his life. Sonny couldn't help but wonder if something was going to change. If John would allow himself to take the time to actually get to know Sonny, to understand that he wasn't a horrible person. That was a dream that would never happen. Sonny knew that Durant wouldn't believe anything that Sonny said, anything at all.

It was relatively late in the evening when the door opened. Sonny looked over, expecting Jason or one of his men. Everyone that was supposed to be home was home. Carly was upstairs, dealing with everything that she needed to deal with. Michael and Morgan, on the other hand, were both in dreamland. Sonny had seen Carly look in on both of them, watch them as they slept and he knew that she was wondering what would happen to them. Sonny wondered the exact same thing. The expected parties did not enter the house, instead, it was his son, his son that was supposed to be working. "Damian? What are you doing home? Your shift doesn't end until tomorrow…"

"I got sent home."

"When?"

"About twelve hours ago…" had he really spent that long drifting in and out of his world, trying to find a way to decipher the many mysteries that needed to be unlocked inside of his mind? Apparently so, as a look at the clock showed.

"Why did you take so long to come home?"

"Because… because I have a lot on my mind right now, dad. I think I'm busy going through some sort of bizarre initiation into this family. You're not really a Corinthos until you feel like you're juggling the entire world on your shoulders and they just keep on adding more weight to the burden, are you?"

Sonny knew that it was a common procedure of his child to try and do something that would push away the pain, the idea that he was going through some sort of ordeal. It may have worked before, when Sonny didn't know Damian nearly as well as he had, but it wouldn't work again. "Sit down…"

"Dad… I'm really tired…"

"I said sit down, please," Sonny could be both forceful and polite at the same time, which was odd, but it was what was necessary. If Sonny wanted to do something he found a way to do it, and there was nothing that Sonny wanted to do more than help the people that he loved, which would always have his children at the top of the list.

Damian sighed and sat on the couch, while Sonny continued to stand, like he was lording over his son, judging him. Damian didn't feel comfortable with the idea at all. "I take it this is the part where you want me to confide my problems in you, isn't it?"

"The idea had crossed my mind."

"Don't you need one of those really bright lights, and a scowl? I know you can do the scowl, I've seen it more times than I thought I would, but the bright light… you might need a little help getting that on such short notice, and at this time at night." If anyone could find a way to get it, it would be Sonny. His father had a way of making the most impossible things happen without a hitch.

"Damian, I'm not going to beat around the bush like this. You need to tell me what's going on… what happened? Why did you come home? Did… did they take you off of being an intern? Can they even do that?"

"Yes, they can do it. If the intern doesn't appear to be doing what they need to do, if they can't handle everything that they're expected to, they can be kicked out of the program. No questions asked. But that isn't what happened with me, dad. Monica gave me the shift off because she saw that there was something bothering me…"

"I can see it, too."

"Do I have it written on my face or something? What's the point of trying to internalize my pain if everyone can read me like a book…"

"You need to get better at it."

"Do you think you can teach me? You must be the master of such things…"

Sonny snickered, "Believe me, if there's one thing that I've regretted during my life it's the way that I push people away when I actually need them the most. I never understood what people went through, I never had that idea of family in my head, not really. Even when I finally got it, with Jason, with Carly, with you and your brothers… I still can't tell myself that I can completely trust them. There's always that little nagging voice in my head that makes me want to do something, makes me want to depend on myself and myself alone. The worst part is… I listen to that voice more than I should. I don't want you to have that voice."

Damian got up, no longer feeling like sitting on the couch. He paced around the room, slowly, trying to hold everything in, trying to do the opposite of what his father said. Despite the advice, despite the love that was there, Damian didn't think that it was true. He didn't want to think that he couldn't depend on himself… but he knew that he needed some help. "She cheated on me… dad."

"Maxie?"

He nodded, but refused to cry. More tears had been shed than he ever thought he would, because it hurt so much, it tore at his entire being more than he ever thought possible. "She thought that I was cheating on her with Brook, so she found someone that she could have sex with and she did it. She didn't even think about it, she just decided that she wanted to have sex with someone because she thought I had been in the wrong…"

"Why would she do something like that? Why would she think that you were in love with Brook?"

"Because Brook cares about me…"

"She's your friend, of course she cares."

"No, dad, she cares about me more than that. She wants me… I don't know why, but she does. She kissed me today, after everything had happened, once she found out that Maxie and I had broken up. I didn't expect it, and I sure as hell didn't ask for it."

"What did you do?"

"What do you think I did?" Damian asked. "I pushed her away. I didn't want to… I mean, I wanted to make sure that she knew it wasn't going to happen, that I wasn't ready to move on, but I didn't want to hurt her because of my decision… it didn't matter, did it?"

"No, she would be hurt either way."

"So that's what happened… Monica saw that I was busy thinking about my personal life, she knew that there was something that was bothering me, I tried to tell her that there wasn't anything wrong, but she didn't believe me, and she sent me home."

"She did the right thing."

"She thinks that you had something to do with it, though. She thought that there was something in my life involving you that managed to push me over the edge. I'm losing my confidence, dad… it's like my entire world is shattering around me, and I can't do anything about it…"

"You can depend on me…"

"That won't be enough."

"How can you say that?" Sonny asked, walking over and standing in front of his son. "You're a big boy now. I didn't see you grow up, I didn't watch you as you became the man that you are, but I know that you are that person now, Damian. I know that you can fight against anything and everything that the world is going to throw at you, and you're going to win, because we don't lose."

"I wish I believed that…"

"You should believe it, you should know that I'm telling the truth. I wouldn't lie to you, not after what happened the first time."

"Why did she do it, dad?" Damian wondered, knowing that his father couldn't give an answer, but asking nonetheless. "I've been looking for that answer ever since I saw her in bed with that other person…"

"Michael knew that there was something wrong with you, too."

"Michael?"

"He talked to me and Carly, said that he felt there was something wrong with you. I didn't think that it was anything big. I'm sorry, for not being there for you when you needed me the most."

"You're here now… my family is here now."

Sonny realized at that moment that Elizabeth was talking about Damian when she said her cryptic message at Kelly's. It wasn't Morgan that she was talking about, it was Damian. Which meant that she knew. Elizabeth knew about Damian's problems before his own father did. Although he was hurt, Sonny knew that a guilt trip was the last thing that the boy needed at that moment.

"I'm going to get some rest… now that I don't have anything that I need to do tomorrow, I know I can sleep in. Goodnight, dad. Thank you for listening, really."

"Damian," Sonny called out to the boy before he reached his door. "You're going to be fine. Don't lose faith in yourself…"

"I'll try and remember that, dad. I really will." Without another word said, the young man walked into his room and closed the door behind him.

Sonny put his problems on hold, the problems that he was dealing with, the problems that his family was dealing with. Instead, he focused entirely on his son, who needed him the most. Sonny could battle against everything that came his way and come out without many marks. Damian, strong as he was, didn't have that kind of training, and, if Sonny had his way, the boy never would. Sonny wanted something better for his child, something that allowed him to be himself again…

Walking over to the phone, Sonny dialed a number, a number that he knew well. He checked the clock one more time, to make sure that it wasn't that late before he pressed the last number. When the phone rang he felt like hanging up for a moment, but knew that it was in his son's best interests. "Hi… it's Sonny. I'm doing fine, thank you. No… he's not hurt or anything… at least not physically. He needs you, though. He needs you so much right now. I can send my jet… do you think you can be ready tomorrow? Yes, I know… it's not much time to prepare, but if you saw him you would know that this isn't something that we can wait on… yeah, it's looking that bad. You can come? Both of you? Great… he'll love it. Thank you. I'll see you soon." Sonny hang up the phone and looked at the closed door, "Help's on the way, son. I promise."


	83. Unpleasant Wake Up

Harbor View Towers, Morning-

Courtney may have had her run disrupted the day before, but it was for the most pleasant of reasons. She and Jason spent the entire night together, ending with a passionate and beautiful evening where they just held each other and did something that they rarely did: they talked. Even though she knew that there was a dark cloud looming over her and that it had instigated the reasons why Jason decided that he needed to spend so much time with his wife she remained undaunted. The best thing about Courtney, to many people, was not her beauty, or her spunk. It was the way that she continued to look at the world in a manner that was as positive as possible. Even when things threatened to break her, she always found a way to come back and make them work again. She had lost a child, lost just about any chance that she had of having a child naturally, but she still remained steadfast in her determination to be with her husband, to be the woman that she always wanted to be, the one that people knew she could be. Maybe that didn't include mother, but it certainly included wife.

Try as she might to put up a brave front, Courtney's mind was not nearly as kind as her appearance made her seem. Instead, she had a dream about him being taken away from her forever. The way that he looked at her, his eyes speaking untold pain as he gripped the sides of the cold metal bars and then watching as he seemed to tell her goodbye as he was driven away, looking smaller and smaller in the distance. Courtney woke up with a gasp, but her husband was already gone. Not gone in the way that the dream entailed, but gone to do something, whatever it was that he was going to do. She was hardly ever sure. Although she did not sob, Courtney felt the tears that rolled down her cheeks, as the emotions that were stirred up from that dream brought out the worst in her, the part that she didn't like to admit existed: the weakness in her that she tried to deny.

That was probably the biggest reason why she made it a point to actually get up and do some running early in the morning. The way that the cold bitter New York wind from the ocean pushed against her face made her numb, but when she warmed up again she felt more alive than she had felt in a long time. It was odd the way that it worked out, but nobody could deny that it did work out.

The elevator opened up and she walked towards her house, a casual glance given over to her brother's side of the penthouse. Little did Courtney know that he was waiting by the door, about to knock. "Sonny?"

Sonny turned around to face his little sister, "What are you doing up so early?"

"I could ask the same of you…"

"Believe me, Courtney, this isn't early for me," Sonny gave a tired look that showed just how much he had been juggling. A crisis of his own, a crisis of his wife's, and now a crisis that belonged entirely to his eldest child. With three very differently yet oddly similar problems, Sonny had to focus on one of them, and he had always told himself that he would be the kind of dad who put everything on hold to make sure that his child's life was fixed. Sonny hadn't been there for Damian, but now the boy needed someone more than he had in a long time, and Sonny was not going to stand by and let someone else take the moment that he had been waiting for.

Courtney should have hated her brother, on some base level at least. After all, it was because of Sonny that Jason was involved with the things that he was involved with. Because of Sonny that Jason was in the business, because of Sonny that he had a chance of getting arrested and taken away from her forever. That kind of raw pain should have let her hate someone that she was supposed to love with all her heart, but she couldn't do it. Courtney knew that it wasn't Sonny's fault. Sonny gave Jason a choice. Jason made that choice. Sonny would have respected Jason's choice if he had decided not to take the path that Sonny had taken, he probably would have respected it more. No, Sonny may have given Jason the means, but Jason took them. Besides, it was hard to hate someone that she loved so much, and she knew now that Sonny was going through everything that she was going through, and more. He had three children that he had to think about never seeing again. That kind of pain was worse, it had to be worse.

"So, you managed to do an early morning run?" Sonny noticed the attire that she was wearing, and he hated the way that she leered at him. It wasn't that he felt that she was judging him, it was just that when she looked at him like that he wasn't smiling, and his little sister had one of the best smiles in the world. "I remember when I was your age… used to think that I could do something like that every morning, and then I realized that if I did I would find myself running from bullets. Not the most pleasant way to run…"

"But I'm sure it got you to run a lot faster than you would have otherwise…"

"You could say that."

Courtney knew that he would avoid talking about the subject that was obviously at the top of his mind unless someone else brought it up first. Maybe he would still decide that he didn't want to talk about it after, but she couldn't just stand there knowing that something was wrong and ignore it. Courtney wasn't built that way, she couldn't look the other way. When things happened that she should have stayed out of and she saw them happen she found a way to get involved. She was just that kind of person. "Sonny, are you doing all right? I mean, I know you have a lot on your mind…"

"Jason told you, didn't he?"

"Yeah…"

Sonny sighed, "I would have loved it if you could have stayed in the dark about what was going on, Courtney. I know how much you worry about everything that happens in our lives, and I've always wanted to keep you away from it."

"You're my big brother, but you don't need to protect me anymore. I'm a grown up woman now…"

"I'm just trying to make up for what I failed to do because I didn't know about you when you were growing up. That happens a lot in my life, doesn't it?"

"Sonny, you did everything that I expected you to do as a big brother, you do it on nearly a daily basis. Nobody is going to tell me that you're not the best brother that I could hope for, not even you…"

"I'm sorry… I'm sorry that something might happen that you can't control, something that doesn't involve you, but will have an impact on you…"

"I knew what I was getting into when I decided to get involved in your life, and with Jason, too. Don't try and tell me that I'm just an innocent in all of this. You always told me that there would be a time when maybe, just maybe, I would have to lose everything I held dear… I just never thought it would happen."

"Neither did I," Sonny walked over and hugged his sister. Although his relationship with his brother was extremely strained, Sonny and Courtney had a relationship that made him feel like he had a family that he could truly love, a sibling who was everything he ever wanted and more. "Promise me something, would you? Promise me that you're going to help them if something happens. They're going to need you… Carly and the boys will depend on you so much if Jason and I… just…" he couldn't say it, couldn't bring himself to talk about something that could have happened, something that was so depressing, "just don't abandon them."

"They're my family, Sonny, they're always going to be in my life, I'm never going to forget them."

"Good…"

"Did you want to come in? You were standing right by the door…"

"Actually, yeah, I need to take care of something."

"I don't know if Jason's home right now, Sonny. When I woke up he was already gone." Courtney found it odd that Sonny wouldn't know where Jason was, he seemed to know more about where her husband was at all times than she did. It bothered her on some level, but on another she understood it.

"I needed to speak with Dillon… not Jason."

"Dillon?" Courtney's eyebrow went up at the mention of the name. "Why do you need to see Dillon?"

"I need to ask him a favor…"

"Sonny, is everything all right?" There were red flags that went up in her mind the moment she realized her big brother was looking to talk with someone that he never really talked with before. The connection was obvious, it involved Damian, "What's wrong with him, Sonny? Did something happen?"

"Courtney…"

Courtney stood in the way of Sonny, barring him from the upper level of the penthouse, where Dillon's room was. "I'm not going to let you pass until you tell me what's going on, Sonny. I'm sorry, but if Dillon's going to be involved in something I want to know about it…"

"He's not going to be involved in anything bad, I promise!"

"If it's so harmless, why don't you tell me?"

Sonny waited for a moment and looked at the intensity in her eyes. Courtney wasn't going to back down. He loved that about her. The fire that was in her eyes, and he would never deny that it was good that she had such fire, especially given what she would need to go through even if the worst didn't happen. If someone decided to make a victim out of Courtney, Sonny knew that they at least had a fight on their hands. "It isn't my place to tell you…"

"But you can tell Dillon?"

"Dillon's his best friend, Courtney. You know that! If something happened to me, I would want my best friend to know…"

"So you're admitting that something happened to him?"

Sonny groaned, "All right, you win. But you need to make sure that it doesn't get out, all right? I don't know how many people know about this, but I'm sure he doesn't want the world to know, he's a lot like me when it comes to things like that. Courtney, Maxie cheated on him…"

Courtney gasped, immediately feeling sorrow in her heart, but not just for Damian. No, she felt it for Maxie as well, although the anger was more apparent for the girl. "Why?"

"That's the complicated part… and I really don't have time to get into it right now. Let's just say that I've got a plan up my sleeve that will deal with the issue, but I need someone to help me, and Dillon's my best bet. Is that what you needed to hear?"

"Yeah…"

"Can I go and see him now?"

Courtney moved out of the way, "Go right ahead." With Sonny walking up the stairs, Courtney turned around, a look of sheer agony on her face. That was his first love, and to have it end in such a horrible way… he must have been broken in so many ways. She closed her eyes and wished that there was a way to make it all better.

Sonny knew the layout of the penthouse very well. It was almost the same as his own, and when he had bought it he made sure he knew his way around both of them, just in case. Courtney and Jason's room was the only room that had an open door. Sonny had never been in Dillon's room before, never had a reason for doing it, and he never thought he would… but, as fate would have it, it tuned out that he had a reason for doing it.

The man opened the door cautiously, unaware of what would happen when he pushed it open. He liked Dillon, he appreciated him and what he did for his son, but Sonny wouldn't deny that the boy had a lot of things about him that made him more than a little odd, and none of those things had anything to do with his last name. Sonny never wanted to judge a person based on their last name, not after the mistakes that he had made in the past.

The room wasn't as clean as Sonny would have expected from a child of his own, but Courtney and Jason didn't seem like the type of people who had a strict cleanliness policy. Sonny had to dodge the various scattered items that littered the ground, almost tripping over a stack of movies that were just lying in the center. There had to be some sort of organized chaos to the room. What that method was… that was up to someone else to decide.

Dillon was sleeping and dreaming of the things that most boys his age dreamt of, although his face did not show anything that was going on in his head. While the dream was getting good he felt a fitting amount of motion, but it stirred him out of his dream and forced him to open his eyes. When Dillon saw the face of Sonny Corinthos standing in front of him he reacted in the only way he knew how: he panicked. "I didn't do anything! I swear! Nobody's asked me anything about you! I wouldn't talk if they did! Just don't kill me! Please don't kill me!"

Sonny had yet another oddity to add on the ever growing list of things that he had on Dillon. The longer the list got, the more Sonny wondered about the boy. "I'm not going to kill you… you should know that."

"Why are you here? Is something wrong? Did something happen?"

"I need your help…"

"Did Lorenzo come back from the dead and take your son again? Do I have to drive you to his safe house?"

"Dillon!" Sonny yelled at him, if he was trying to be amusing the comedy was completely lost on Sonny, but that was to be expected. Sonny wasn't exactly big on the laughs. "I need you to do something for me, and I need you to listen. It's very important, all right? You're the only one that I can trust to do this…"


	84. Always Caring

Note: While I've never done this before, I feel the need to do it now. I am taking an extended sabbatical from posting the story as of today. Why? Because I once had a 100 page lead when I started posting, and, due to my own lack of interest and drive, I have allowed that lead to shrink down to just ten pages. This shows me that I need to make sure that I do some mad catching up and give myself time to do some plotting that will allow me to get everything back in order. I don't know when it will go back up, but do not expect it to get back up before New Years. I do apologize for doing this, but it needed to be done.

Queen of the Elven City-

Sorry about not responding to your second to last review, I was in a hurry. Yeah, there's plenty of times that you just are forced to love Dillon, because he is the best.

Story-

Corinthos Household-

It was a big day for Michael. He had his huge math test that he had been worrying about for so long, and it would finally be over once the day was complete. Michael had spoken to just about everyone about it, telling them of his worries, about how he was afraid that he was going to fail and that he would be forced to stay behind in 4th grade. Everyone told him the same thing: that he was just worrying too much and that he would do fine. Sometimes, Michael wondered if the people around him merely told him such things in order to appease him, and then he remembered that they were the people that loved him the most, and that they wouldn't tell him something just to get his confidence up unless t hey were certain that he could do it. With the faith that he had in himself and the faith that they had in him, Michael believed that there was almost nothing that he couldn't do… except find a way to make sure that his family didn't have so many problems. But no amount of power, no amount of wishing could make his family's problems go away. It seemed like every time there was something that was going right the next time he turned around there was that overwhelming feeling of sadness that loomed in the distance. And every time he tried to find out what was going on they would push him away.

"Mr. Man!" Carly shouted for Michael from downstairs, "Come on, I need to talk with you for a little while before you go to school!"

"All right, mommy, I'm coming!" Michael, dressed in his uniform, ran down the stairs, dragging his backpack behind him. "What's up?"

"Nothing, my precious baby boy, I just wanted to spend some time with you before Max took you to school. You know how often you go to school without me even getting to talk with you about everything that's going on in your life… sometimes it happens for so long that I don't even know what you're doing in school. I want to make sure that doesn't happen again…"

"Mommy, I don't get hurt when you don't ask me how school was. Maybe I get a little disappointed, but I can't help it. I want to know that you care about what's going on in my life… but even when I don't feel like you do, deep down I know that you'll always love me."

"Baby…" Carly hugged Michael as soon as he sat down on the couch next to her. "I am so sorry for doing everything that I've done to you. I'm so sorry for neglecting you like I have… I don't want to do that anymore, Michael, I don't."

Michael wrapped his arms around his mother, "You don't need to lie for me."

Carly was surprised and pulled herself away from him, the look of shock obvious on her face. "What did you say to me?"

"I said that you don't need to lie to me about everything. You never did. I know you don't have everything under control, even though you want to make me think that you do, but there's so much going on in your life, there always is. I've managed to understand what's going on, at least a little bit…"

"I don't know if I should be proud of you or angry at myself…"

"Don't be mad at yourself, mommy," Michael begged her. "You and daddy have a lot of things that go on in your life, like when the bad man took you, or when Morgan got sick, and a whole lot of other things that I don't even know about or want to remember. Before it would bother me, a lot… but now it doesn't."

"When did you get so mature?"

"When you told me that you would always love me no matter what," Michael smiled. "I never forgot that, and even when there are days that you look at me and you want to say something but you don't, or when I want to do something with you and you can't… I know that the love isn't something that can go away, love isn't something that you'll ever stop feeling for me."

"I still want to change…"

"Then tell me what I want to know," Michael replied. "Tell me why you wanted to see me so badly. I know that it wasn't because you're upset about not being able to spend time with me before I go to school. I saw you staring at me last night from my bedroom door. You thought I was asleep, but I had my eyes opened just enough to see you. I saw the tears in your eyes, mommy…"

"Baby, there's just a lot of things going on in my life right now. There's a lot of things that don't make sense… and…"

"And I wouldn't understand, right? It's always the same story, every time. I'm too young to understand what's going on in your life, too young to help you… but I know a way to help you, a way that will always help you."

"How's that?"

"By doing this," Michael leaned against his mother's shoulder, wrapping his arms around her waist, "You're my mom, that's all that matters. Nothing is going to change that, nothing is going to make you feel less special in my heart."

"I love you so much right now…"

Damian had come out of his room. Although his emotions were still very erratic he knew that he couldn't stay in his room forever, and, although the shower did not ease his torment completely, it helped soothe his nerves to the point where he could stand up without looking like he was going to collapse. He stayed silent, watching the two of them. Even when he and Carly were at each other's throats, Damian knew that she loved her sons so much. It reminded him so much of the way that he and his mother were, that overwhelming amount of trust and the way that when she said something to him it made everything seem just a little bit better, no matter what was going on in the world around him. Damian wanted that back, but he could never have it again.

Carly did think about telling her son about his grandfather, about how she had finally found the man that was her father, but she knew that Michael put up a brave front so that he could make it seem like things weren't bothering him, so he could try and protect his family. He was so much like his father in that way that it was scary. But, Michael had a big test, she knew that, and she wasn't going to put thoughts in his head that would allow him to fail. "So, Mr. Man… you've got a big test today, don't you?"

"People are worried about it. My friend Matt, he doesn't think that he's going to pass it, and he's worried about what his parents are going to do if he fails…"

"They're going to be there for him if he does, I'm sure that Matt's parents love him just as much as I love you… well, maybe a little less, because nobody can love anyone as much as I love you and your brother… you know that, right?"

"I've never forgotten," Michael finally pulled himself away from her to look and smile. "See? I told you that I could cheer you up…"

"Yeah, Michael, you're the best person in the world when it comes to cheering someone up…"

"You're not going to tell me what's bothering you, are you?"

"Nothing's bothering me right now, Michael. Honest." She wasn't lying, because, at that moment, the only thing that mattered to her was the fact that her little boy was becoming such a little man. "Now, what's eighty-four divided by seven?"

"That's easy, it's twelve!" Michael didn't need a calculator, or even scratch paper, he could do division in his head, as long as the numbers weren't too big. "You can do better than that…"

"I just wanted to show you how smart you were, baby, right before you got ready to leave."

Morgan, who was in a baby seat on that was placed on the chair nearby began to get fussy. Carly turned over to see her other child. She wanted to spend some time alone with them, just in case something happened. Did she expect herself to get caught up in the web of Durant's? No, she didn't. She didn't think that her father would really put her in jail, but there was no doubt that he would try and do something to stop her from keeping his real mission from being fulfilled, and, if that happened… what would happen? If Michael found out would he hate her?

As Carly stood she looked over to see the looming figure in the hallway. "Damian? What are you doing here?"

Michael pulled his head up from the couch and saw that it was indeed his big brother. Without hesitation, Michael rushed over to his brother, "I thought that you had to work until tomorrow!"

"I managed to get the shift off… I needed some time to recover… when you work as hard as I do you can get burned out really easily, so, listen to me kid, when you get my age, when you decide what you want to do, no matter what it is, don't throw yourself into it without any hesitation… take your time, enjoy life… all right?"

"Are you all right?"

"Michael… nobody is expecting you to fix everyone's problems, besides, you're going to need all the energy you have for that test. I don't think all the questions are going to be as easy as the one that your mom just gave you…"

"She's trying to hide something from me, I know it. The way that she's talking to me…"

"Is just the way that mother's talk to their children, especially when they love them as much as Carly loves you. Don't think that your mom has some hidden agenda, because she doesn't. She's your mother, she watched you grow up, she watched you become the person that you are right now… if she wants to spend a little bit of time with you then you really should let her do it. Trust me, you'll miss the moments when you get older…"

"Are you thinking about your mom?"

"I always think about her," Damian said with a smile that tried to hide his pain, but failed. "Again, it isn't your problem, and its better to think about her in a way that makes me sad than to not think about her at all, right? Because, if I stopped thinking about her, then it would mean that she didn't matter to me anymore… and your mother should always matter to you, no matter who you are."

Michael nodded, "I'm going to have Max take me to school now, if I get there a little earlier I can get some studying in with my friends. Are you going to be here when I get back?"

The young man could only shrug, "If I'm not I'll make sure to give you a call and ask how the test went, how's that?"

"I'm going to hold you to that!" Michael laughed as he walked towards the door, but he stopped and looked over at his mother. She smiled and mouthed the word 'goodbye' to him, but he walked over and hugged her once more, "I'm sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable…"

"You never could… not you." Carly kissed him on the forehead and sent him on his way. Morgan, who was still in her arms, had stopped being fussy, and she put him back down in the carrier. "Thank you, for what you said…"

"I just said what he needed to hear, I only told him the truth…"

"No, you saved me from something that I didn't want to talk to him about."

"That might be true, but that's your right as his mother. Carly, I don't know what's going on in your life, and I'm not going to pry and try and get you to tell me your deepest, darkest secrets. I don't think that you would ever tell them to me if I did. All I know is that you're his mother, that's all I need to know."

"I found my father."

"Excuse me?"

"My father… you said that you don't know if I trust you enough to tell you about my problems, well, guess what, I do trust you enough. You've been great to me, even when I wasn't so nice to you. You've tried to be understanding when I wanted to push you away… you're keeping a secret that you shouldn't need to, just so that I can be a little happier…"

"I'm not talking about that… I'm talking about your father. You found him?"

"Yeah… you're not going to believe it, but the guy who helped make me is John Durant…"

Damian gulped, "That… that really is pretty surprising." She had found out? So soon? Damian knew that John knew, but he was also pretty sure that Bobbie would have found a way to make sure that her daughter never found out who her father was. "How did you find out?"

"I was going to talk to my mother again, I was going to try and get her to tell me what she had been hiding, and then he came up and said that he was my father. I didn't want to believe him, but when I asked her she couldn't deny it… so now I know, and I know that she knew the whole time."

"What else do you know?"

"I don't need to know anything else. Someone that I trusted betrayed me, and I don't know if things will ever be the same between me and my mother again." Carly grabbed the end of the carrier, "I'm going to put him back upstairs for his nap… thanks again."

"No problem, Carly." Damian watched her go up the stairs and he was visibly shaken. She didn't know about his involvement in the whole ordeal… but would she find out?


	85. Summary of the Rest

Hello again, my good readers. As I write this, and dust off the proverbial cobwebs on what was once a gripping saga of a man trying to adjust to his new lot in life and gain footing in a relationship with his newly found father in spite of their philosophical differences, I find myself regrettably at an impasse. Yes, I know, I swore up and down that I would continue and finish the story in 2006, and that I wouldn't allow myself to be one of those authors that never completed a story, especially one that had gotten so far into its plot. But, you know what? I have failed. I have failed myself, I have failed my characters, and most of all, I have failed you, the readers. I cannot ask for forgiveness, nor do I expect it. There are reasons I was unable to do anything for the story all last year. Really, there were. Classes for my schooling were quite demanding, and then I took a semester off which meant I worked 8 hours a day for a good half a year, thus giving me little time to do any writing, but mostly, I have just found myself disenfranchised with the show that this whole thing was intertwined with. Yes, I still watch General Hospital on an almost daily basis, but overall it rarely resonates with me. To make matters worse, the powers that be have dared use the name Damien for a character as annoying as Spinelli. Yes, my character is named Damian. But the point remains! All is not yet lost, my friends. I will not complete this story in its entirety, because I cannot bring myself to do it. But, I certainly do not want to leave you people hanging. Though I cannot remember for the life of me where the story ended, and I am too lazy to even look at it, I can give you an outline of what I wanted to have happen in the story, that way, at the very least, you can see where it would have progressed and where the story would have ended. It is quite literally the least I can do, and I apologize again for having to go this route, and also for keeping you waiting for such a minor ending all this time.

In an effort to boost the spirits of his dejected and heartbroken son, Sonny would send for the two people who understood Damian the best, his grandparents: Victoria and Elias. Their arrival would serve as a momentary distraction for Damian's woes (see how I work the title into an overlapping theme?), but it would also serve as another catalyst. Upon seeing Damian with his grandparents and the loving relationship that they have, Dillon would suffer from a bit of yearning, and would bring forth some inner jealousy he had in regards to his best friend's family relationships. Damian would assure Dillon that his life was not always wonderful, and he had his own hardships to overcome. And, he would further point out that, though they share no blood, Damian views Dillon as a member of his family. Victoria would also offer this stance on the matter, telling Dillon that she could act as his surrogate grandmother if he ever needed one.

Damian's three grandparents would finally meet, unsurprisingly at Kelly's. Mike would thank them for doing such a wonderful job raising such a young man with such strong morals, and Elias would say that he is glad that Damian has another grandfather figure close to him. During this, Maxie would walk into Kelly's, surprised to see the Zuniga's. Elias would treat her cordially, but Victoria would deliver a hearty slap to her face before blasting Maxie for breaking Damian's heart. Damian would arrive and disrupt the altercation, defending Maxie, surprising all parties involved. Maxie would assume that they still had a chance to repair their fractured relationship, but Damian would firmly state that it was not the case.

Durant would use the information that Carly is his daughter to his advantage in taking down Sonny, but at the same time he would desire a way to immerse himself in his child's life, as well as his grandchildren. Carly would not allow him the opportunity to be close to her or her children. Looking for another way, Durant would target Damian, stating that if Damian did not help Durant get his foot in the door, he would arrest Elias for his prior mob related activities. Unable to let his grandfather suffer, Damian would agree to the terms, arranging for clandestine meetings between Durant and the children.

In an effort to show that her father would do absolutely nothing to undermine her relationship with her husband, Carly and Sonny would state an elaborate renewal of their vows, attended by their family and friends. Damian would play the piano, with Brook Lynn singing. Before that, Damian would head to Kelly's, dressed in formal attire, to grab something Mike forgot. Maxie would again be there and sadly comment on the fact that her dreams of seeing him dressed up like that while she was in a wedding dress were dashed. At the wedding, Damian would dance with Brook, with Maxie watching out of a partially opened door. Georgie, in attendance with Dillon, would usher her sister away.

Sam would continue to try and get some information on Jason and Sonny in an effort to save her brother from the clutches of Durant. In order to better infiltrate the Morgan household, she would strike up a friendship with Courtney, and though morally conflicted with her task, she would continue to look, finding nothing.

A talkative Morgan would eventually let it slip that he and his brothers had been spending time with his grandpa John to Sonny and Carly. Both would become angry at Damian's actions, but he would keep the true reason for said actions secret, only saying that he felt the boys had a right to know their maternal grandfather. Carly would confront her father and state that John would never see the children again. Shortly thereafter, John would make good with his threat, forcing Ric and the PCPD to arrest Elias for his ancient activities. During the arrest, Elias would have a heart attack and, in spite of Damian's best efforts, he would be pronounced dead at General Hospital.

Damian and Victoria would return to Los Angeles for the funeral and burial. Sonny would initially respect his son's wishes to be alone, but would eventually decide that it was his job as a father to be with his child during such a difficult time. Damian, meanwhile, would be unable to deal with his family's continued grief-induced accusations of not being good enough to save Elias and leave the house. Sonny would find his son, slumped over the empty grave where his grandfather would be buried, next to his mother, and act as Damian's safety net. The next day, a still visibly shaken Damian would deliver the eulogy, during which he would see Maxie in the crowd. Afterwards, he would thank her for being there. Once more, the girl would attempt to reestablish their relationship, only to be rebuked.

Ric, angered and hurt due to his part in Damian's suffering, would refuse to go along with John's plan to bring down Sonny and Jason, instead working with his brother in an effort to take John out of Port Charles. Sonny would initially be weary of Ric's intentions, but over time would slowly see that Ric indeed wants nothing more than to atone for his prior mistake.

A sympathetic Brook would attempt to ask Damian to be her date for the winter formal, looking for a way to give her friend an escape from all his turmoil. Ned would shoot down the idea, refusing to let her daughter be near one of Sonny's children. Instead, he would arrange for a son of one of his business associates to escort his daughter, along with Dillon and Georgie.

Dillon, seeking some advice from his best friend, would wonder if the Winter Formal would be the best time to cement their relationship and disavow their chastity. Damian would say that only Dillon could make that decision, but if he had any doubt in his mind about it, then it was best to wait.

At the dance, Brook's date would act like a perfect gentleman, earning her admiration. Afterwards, his intentions would instead turn into something much more sinister. Bringing the girl to one of the rooms at the PC Hotel, he would attempt to seduce her into bed, upon refusal, he would instead decide to take her, willing or not. Damian, seeking some form of closure over Elias's death, would return to the room where the man was arrested and died, only to hear Brook's screaming nearby. Angered, Damian would attack Brook's date, only to find the girl unconscious, her dress in tatters. Meanwhile, Dillon would refuse to take the next step with Georgie, much to her disappointment. Upon asking why, Dillon would mention Damian's name.

At the hospital, Brook would be diagnosed with a concussion. When Ned arrived, Damian would chastise Ned, saying that Ned wanted nothing more to protect Brook from someone who would hurt her, only to lead her directly into the waiting arms of a perverted individual who would do just that.

A short time later, Georgie would attack Damian for ruining her relationship, accusing him of trying to sabotage the relationship between Dillon and herself in some twisted way of getting back at Maxie. Maxie would defend Damian, who would finally have the time to explain to Georgie that he told Dillon to listen to his own feelings, and that Georgie owed Dillon that much. Georgie would apologize, and, afterwards, Damian would ask Maxie to speak with Brook, as they had both been in abusive relationships and Brook needed someone to speak with. Initially reluctant, Maxie would eventually agree.

Distancing himself from the situation with his daughter because of his blame in it all, Ned would find himself led to a warehouse in a business proposition. The warehouse would be bugged, and Ned would be killed in the explosion.

The entire Corinthos-Morgan clan would be there for Brook, Dillon and Lois at Ned's funeral, including Georgie and Maxie, who would finally allow herself to get beyond her feud with Brook to establish something of a friendship. Meanwhile, Tracy would wonder why someone would take her son in such a horrible fashion.

Not wanting to take time, knowing how soon it could all be over, Dillon would change his mind about his relationship with Georgie, but while running to be with her and tell her, he would be ambushed. His attacker would be revealed to be Faith, who was looking to send a message. The message would be completed with a critically injured Dillon bleeding from a gunshot wound in an alley.

Dillon would make it out of emergency surgery, but still be in critical condition. The heightened emotions of Tracy, Courtney and Jason would lead to a heated conversation, but Damian would bring them back down for Dillon's sake.

In the chapel, a grief stricken Tracy would plead with God to tell her why her sons were being harmed. Faith would give the answer: Tracy leads a long dormant fraction of the mob from her previous marriage in New York City. Faith wants control of said organization, and is willing to do anything to get it, including finish the job on Dillon. Tracy quickly gives up control of the mob, but is sworn to secrecy.

Upon awakening, Dillon would be checked out of the hospital, but would be unable to stay at Jason's any longer, fearing that he had been the unexpected hit in Faith's attempts to get back at Jason and Sonny. Knowing that a return to the mansion would also be out of the question, he is out of ideas, but Damian gives him the key to his room at Kelly's.

More reflection on his life leads Dillon to make a change in his life, which he reveals to Tracy. A simple change of his last name. Fearing that he would change his last name to Morgan like Jason, Tracy would be even more upset to hear his ultimate choice: Hornsby. Reluctantly, she would sign the papers necessary to make such a change.

While attempting to investigate both Dillon's shooting and Durant's takedown, Jason would find Sam's name connected to John. Confronting her, along with Courtney, Sam would tell all. Freeing Sam would give Jason and Sonny the first chink in Durant's armor. Safe, Sam would leave to be with her brother.

Brook and Lois would leave Port Charles, unable to deal with the violence in their life, and fearing for Brook's own safety after the death of her father and the near death of her uncle. Brook would admit that though she loved Damian, a relationship between the two would probably never work.

Seeing Dillon's erratic behavior, Damian, Georgie and Maxie would stage an intervention. During the probe, they would find out who had almost killed him, and had killed Ned. Damian would immediately tell Sonny and Jason.

Ric would uncover some more information that would further discredit Durant. Giving the information to Sonny and Jason, it would work together with the other information Jason got and they would threaten to bring down Durant, forever ruining his career. Unable to sacrifice something like that, even for his family, John would make a hasty exit.

An ambush would be staged to pay Faith back for her previous actions. Dillon would get in on it secretly, taking a gun that he had purchased and, finding Faith at his mercy, threaten to pull the trigger. Damian and Georgie would come at that moment and Damian would manage to convince Dillon that taking a life is something that can never be taken back and isn't worth sacrificing everything for. Dillon would put the gun down, leaving Faith apprehended.

The continued violence around him would lead Damian to make the decision to leave Port Charles.

Dillon and Damian would find out that Faith had been killed on her way to prison. Dillon would get the closure that he needed, and Damian would later ask Jason if he had a part in it. Jason would comment that anyone who hurt his family needed to pay, and Dillon was his family. Damian would thank Jason for doing it and allowing Dillon to keep his innocence intact.

Georgie would tell Maxie about Damian's intentions to leave Port Charles, and that it would be in her best interest to avoid seeing him off. Maxie would agree.

Damian would say his goodbyes to everyone who mattered to him in Port Charles, telling them that he would always come back if he was needed. He would plead for his father and his uncle to try and build a relationship with one another, noting that it was their combined efforts that took down Durant. Insisting that he not take the private jet, Damian would board a small plane and be flown to New York.

While in New York, Damian would see Maxie at the airport. She would finally admit that their relationship had reached a point where it would be hard to come back from, but would ask if he still loved her. Upon finding out that he would always love her, Maxie would watch him board another flight.

And that is how the story would end. Full circle, in a way. There would probably be some more things thrown in just for flavor, but those were the big plot points that would have happened. As you can see, doing all of that would have taken me an extremely long time, and though I wish I had the energy and the drive to do such a thing, I know that I don't, and to keep an empty promise would be wrong. So, again, I thank all of you for your continued support, in spite of my failures. I cannot promise that I will never, ever continue the story of Damian Corinthos, but at this point it seems unlikely.

Regards,

Set


End file.
